Embraer Opens Crisis Room With Honeywell After GPS Fault Prompts Flight Cancellations Across E190-E2 and E195-E2 Fleets

Embraer has opened a crisis room with avionics supplier Honeywell after a critical GPS fault affecting the global fleet of E190-E2 and E195-E2 jets prompted multiple airlines to cancel flights across several continents. The fault was first detected by Azul Linhas Aéreas, which grounded all 43 of its E2 aircraft after the problem was identified at 5:30 PM local time on Tuesday in Brazil. Approximately 200 E2 aircraft are currently in service with 24 airlines worldwide, all equipped with the Honeywell Primus Epic 2.0 navigation system.

In Canada, Porter Airlines, which operates a fleet of 52 E190-E2 and E195-E2 aircraft, canceled a series of scheduled E2 flights. Virgin Australia followed suit, as did European carriers Binter, KLM, and Luxair. It has not been confirmed whether Asia-based operators Royal Jordanian and Hunnu Air grounded their fleets. Flightradar24 reported on X that a small number of E2s continued operating. Mexicana de Aviación operates a fleet of 20 affected aircraft. LATAM Airlines Brasil and GOL Linhas Aéreas are not operationally affected — LATAM's 74 E2s are still on order and have not entered service, and GOL has none of the affected models in its current fleet.

Embraer stated it is jointly investigating the event with Honeywell to determine the cause and assess corrective measures, and pledged to provide updates as its technical support team makes progress. Embraer Technical Services issued a bulletin to operators worldwide stating that a system reset has been identified as a temporary solution to restore normal GPS signal reception, but cautioning that the failure condition may recur after the reset and that a permanent fix has not yet been developed. The reset procedure involves pulling main electrical circuit breakers to force a cold restart of the navigation modules, and some carriers have opted to keep aircraft grounded rather than attempt it. A permanent resolution will require Honeywell engineers to release a software patch that maintenance crews can install directly onto the aircraft.

A shared avionics component turning into a fleet-wide grounding trigger is a familiar pattern in modern airliner programs, where a single supplier's navigation system sits across dozens of operators and continents at once. Because the Primus Epic 2.0 unit is common to the roughly 200 in-service E2 aircraft across 24 airlines, one detected fault at a single carrier in Brazil was enough to cascade into cancellations in Canada, Australia and Europe within the same window.

The segment's operating math now hinges on a workaround versus a fix: airlines must choose between the circuit-breaker reset that restores GPS signal temporarily, with acknowledged risk of recurrence, or continued grounding until Honeywell issues a software patch. That choice explains why fleets of similar size, such as Azul's 43 and Porter's 52 aircraft, are responding differently depending on each carrier's tolerance for a fault that may reappear mid-operation.

The next milestone that would change the picture is Honeywell's release of a permanent software patch installable by maintenance crews, alongside confirmation from Embraer and Honeywell on the fault's root cause. Until then, whether Royal Jordanian and Hunnu Air have grounded their E2s remains unconfirmed, and LATAM's and GOL's absence of exposure underscores that only carriers with delivered, in-service E2s are affected.