Envoy Air

Is Envoy Air safe?

Yes. Envoy, American Airlines' largest wholly owned regional airline, has not had a fatal crash in more than 30 years, and the only aircraft it lost in the last 20 was an ERJ-145 that slid off the runway in the Bahamas in 2020 without injuring anyone. We score it 82, level with American Airlines itself. The weaker part of its record is in the cockpit: a 2021 FAA letter about pilot airmanship and several runway errors since.

You book Envoy without knowing it. Its flights carry AA numbers and the American Eagle brand, mostly out of Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago O'Hare, and the booking shows "operated by Envoy Air". It flies under its own FAA certificate, which is why we score it apart from American's mainline. Until April 2014 it was called American Eagle Airlines, so older reports under that name belong to this airline. The January 2025 Washington crash, which many people link with the Eagle brand, was flown by PSA Airlines.

Envoy's accident record

No passenger or crew member has died on an Envoy flight in the 20 years our rubric looks at, and the Aviation Safety Network database shows none since the mid-1990s. The events that matter most:

• Freeport, Bahamas, 24 October 2020. American Eagle 4194 from Miami, an ERJ-145 with 28 people on board, veered right after touchdown, left the runway and collapsed its left main gear. Everyone got out uninjured, but the jet was written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. The pilots reported braking they had not commanded; Bahamian investigators tested the brake parts and could not find a cause.
• Chicago O'Hare, 11 November 2019. Another ERJ-145 slid off the side of runway 10L on landing in snow, and its right main gear collapsed. None of the 41 on board was hurt. The NTSB blamed poor braking action and named a late runway assessment and the controller as contributing factors.
• Montgomery, 31 December 2022. An Envoy E175 had parked at the gate with its left engine running, because the auxiliary power unit was out of service. A ramp agent employed by Piedmont walked in front of the engine and was killed. The NTSB found that her training and the airline's procedures were not factors and blamed her cognitive impairment. It also noted that US rules do not treat ramp workers as safety-sensitive staff, so they are not drug-tested.

We do not count the Montgomery death as a fatal accident against the airline: nobody on board was hurt, and the NTSB found that Envoy's training and procedures were not factors. With one write-off and no deaths on board, we put the accident record at 90. SkyWest scores higher here because its only write-off in 20 years never flew.

The FAA's warning about Envoy pilots

In January 2021 an FAA inspector wrote to Envoy's chief executive about nine events from 2019 and 2020. According to Flying magazine and ch-aviation, which saw the letter, they included a crew that nearly skipped a checklist before take-off, an attempted take-off without the right flap setting, an unauthorised 360-degree turn near mountains and a near landing on the wrong runway. The FAA spoke of a "potential lack of airmanship" and asked for an action plan. Envoy said several of the events had first come to light through its own safety programme.

Some of the same kinds of error have happened since:

• Houston Hobby, 5 March 2023. An Envoy E175 told to line up and wait began its take-off roll instead. A Southwest 737 was landing on a runway that crosses it and went around below 100 feet. The FAA said the two came within about 4,100 feet.
• Chicago O'Hare, 25 September 2024. An E170 from Norfolk cleared to land on runway 10C landed on 10L. The NTSB blamed the crew's continuation bias and a wrong navigation frequency, and faulted the tower for not warning them.
• Washington National, 4 August 2026. An Envoy E175 climbing out for Pensacola lost separation with Marine One, the president's helicopter. Preliminary information points at air traffic control: the helicopter's radio call was blocked, and departures were not stopped as required.

Turbulence also seriously hurt Envoy flight attendants descending into Chicago in July 2020 and August 2023, and a passenger near Alexandria, Louisiana, in December 2019. Engine failures on E175s from Dallas to Midland in December 2025 and January 2026 both ended in safe landings. The last FAA penalty we found against this certificate dates from 2010: a proposed $2.9 million for flying four Bombardier jets with improperly repaired landing-gear doors. These events give the incident factor 66, below PSA and SkyWest.

What does Envoy fly?

At the end of 2025, Envoy flew 136 Embraer E175s and 43 E170s, according to American's 10-K. The E175 is the backbone of US regional flying, with partial fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary controls and a 76-seat, two-class cabin. American bought its E175s new from the mid-2010s and took 12 more in 2025, and it has 80 more on order from 2026. The E170s are the older part of the fleet; one involved in a 2023 turbulence event was built in 2004. Envoy no longer flies the 50-seat ERJ-145s. A single aircraft family keeps training and maintenance simple, which is why the fleet scores 80, above the mixed CRJ fleets of PSA and SkyWest.

Flying Envoy with less worry

• Check the aircraft line on your booking. An E175 is the newer type; an E170 is older but the same family, with the same safety equipment.
• Expect weather delays at Dallas and Chicago. Summer storms at DFW and winter snow at O'Hare cause most of Envoy's cancellations, and the 2019 runway excursionRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary happened in O'Hare snow. A ground stop is the system working.
• Belt up whenever you are seated. Regional jets descend through more weather, and Envoy's serious injuries in recent years have all come from turbulence.

How we scored it

No deaths on board in 20 years and one write-offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary without injuries give an accident record of 90. FAA oversight scores 83, lower than PSA because of the 2021 airmanship letter. A single-family Embraer fleet (80), a run of runway mistakes and turbulence injuries (66) and busy hubs in storm and snow country (76) give 82, below SkyWest (84) and above Endeavor (76), Delta's equivalent.