Embraer has opened a crisis room with avionics partner Honeywell after a GPS fault hit the global Embraer E190-E2 and E195-E2 fleet. Simple Flying’s September 23, 2026 report, citing Brazilian outlet Aeroin, says the problem was first detected at Azul Linhas Aéreas and quickly forced cancellations on several continents.
Azul grounded 43 aircraft after the system problem surfaced at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Brazil, with two jets airborne at the time. About 200 E2 aircraft in service with 24 airlines worldwide carry Honeywell Primus Epic 2.0 navigation systems that are tied to the investigation.
Embraer said it is jointly investigating the event with Honeywell to find the cause and assess corrective measures. A technical bulletin to operators describes a system reset as a temporary way to restore GPS reception, while warning that the failure condition may recur after the reset and that a permanent fix is not yet available.
Operators outside Brazil moved quickly. Porter Airlines in Canada canceled a series of E2 flights. Virgin Australia followed. In Europe, Binter, KLM, and Luxair were among carriers reported to have canceled or disrupted E2 flying. Flightradar24 noted that some E2s continued to operate while the industry absorbed the bulletin.
For travelers, the practical impact is concentrated on regional and thin-haul networks that rely on the E2 as a backbone type. KLM Cityhopper’s Embraer E195-E2 flying, Luxair’s E2 missions, and Porter’s North American E2 schedule are exactly the kind of banks that feel a GPS-related grounding first because spare narrowbodies are scarce in those fleets.
The Embraer E195-E2 is a two-class regional jet with under-wing engines and a distinctive high-aspect wing, not a mainline A320-size aircraft. When a navigation fault forces resets or cancellations, airports that depend on high-frequency E2 turns—Schiphol’s Cityhopper complex, Porter’s Canadian hubs, Azul’s Brazilian bases—see delays cascade into the evening bank.
Airlines are telling customers to check itineraries before heading to the airport. Even where a reset restores GPS lock, crews must treat the temporary procedure as operationally fragile until Honeywell and Embraer publish a lasting software or hardware remedy.
Regulators and lessors will watch whether the fault is isolated to a software load, a constellation interaction, or a deeper Primus Epic 2.0 defect. Until that root cause is public, operators are balancing passenger inconvenience against the risk of dispatching an aircraft that may lose GPS again after a reset.
Simple Flying’s account stresses that the crisis room stood up rapidly after Azul’s first report and that Embraer promised further updates as the technical support team progresses. No permanent solution timeline was included in the initial bulletin language quoted by Aeroin.
For now, the industry headline is a rare fleet-wide E2 navigation event: a GPS fault spanning the E190-E2 and E195-E2, a joint Embraer–Honeywell crisis cell, a reset-only workaround, and cancellations from Brazil to Canada and Europe. Source reporting: Simple Flying, September 23, 2026, citing Aeroin and airline statements.
Maintenance controllers are also weighing whether to keep E2s in a no-go status overnight or to release them after a successful reset with extra dispatch notes. That choice varies by airline culture and by how many spare regional jets sit nearby. Azul’s mass grounding shows how painful the decision becomes when the E2 is the backbone of a large domestic network.
Passengers connecting over hubs that lean on E2 frequencies should build longer connection buffers until Embraer publishes a permanent fix. Even a single mid-bank cancellation can strand travelers overnight when the next E2 turn is hours away and mainline narrowbodies are already full.
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