Envoy Air

Envoy began as a collection of regional carriers with contracts to carry the American Eagle brand name. The first American Eagle flight was operated by Metroflight Airlines, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Metro Airlines (formerly Houston Metro Airlines), on 1 November 1984, from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Metroflight utilized Convair 580 turboprop aircraft that had been formerly operated by Frontier Airlines.

Other carriers that have flown in American Eagle livery include Executive Airlines, Command Airways, Air Virginia, Simmons Airlines, Chaparral Airlines and Wings West Airlines. Among other aircraft in its fleet, Chaparral flew Grumman I-C turboprops which were stretched, 37 passenger regional airliner versions of Grumman's successful propjet business aircraft and was one of only a few air carriers to ever operate the type in scheduled passenger service.

Until 1987 these third-party carriers flew under contract with American Airlines to provide regional feed to its hubs. During 1987 and 1988 AMR Corp. acquired its regional carriers, starting with Simmons Airlines. AMR's final airline d.b.a. American Eagle acquisition was Executive Airlines in 1989.

By mid-1991 AMR had consolidated the number of carriers to four. The May 15, 1998, merger of Wings West and Flagship into Simmons (and the name change of Simmons Airlines to American Eagle Airlines) reduced the number of carriers flying as American Eagle under separate operating certificates to two: American Eagle Airlines and Executive Airlines.

American Eagle Airlines launched its regional jet service in May 1998 using Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft.

AMR struck a codesharing deal with Trans World Airlines (TWA), allowing TWA to sell American Eagle Airlines flights feeding into Los Angeles and later New York's JFK Airports. These services were branded by TWA as Trans World Connection flights. These American Eagle Airlines/Trans World agreements were forged well in advance of AMR's acquisition of TWA in 2001.

During 2007, AMR began studying ways to spin American Eagle Airlines off into a separate company, including, but not limited to, the possibility of selling the company to stockholders or an unaffiliated third party. In 2008, AMR said any plans had been put on hold until the airline industry stabilized after the 2008 financial crisis. In July 2011, AMR announced the spin-off of American Eagle Airlines, but those plans were again shelved when AMR filed for bankruptcy in November 2011.

On 14 January 2014, American Airlines Group officially announced the rebranding of its American Eagle subsidiary as Envoy. Aircraft operated by American Eagle continued to operate under the current American Eagle branding, but an "Operated by Envoy Air" label was added, similar to the label used by other contract airlines that fly aircraft with American Eagle livery. This name change was created to avoid confusion when American Airlines announced that other regional carriers would operate on behalf of American. The term 'Envoy' is a reincarnation of the now deprecated Envoy Class of seating on US Airways aircraft.

As of August 2025, Envoy Air operates the following aircraft:

Envoy is expected to grow their total fleet to 214 aircraft by the end of 2027.

In September 2009, AMR Corporation announced plans to add a First Class cabin to its fleet of 25 Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets and also signed a letter of intent with Bombardier, Inc. to exercise options for the purchase of 22 additional CRJ700 aircraft for delivery beginning in the middle of 2010.

In January 2014, American Eagle's pilots' union reached an agreement with the regional carrier's management that guaranteed 60 of the 90 new Embraer 175 aircraft that American Airlines ordered in December were to be operated by Eagle. The deal included options for 90 other aircraft to be operated by the regional carrier. Delivery of the aircraft would begin in the first quarter of 2015. This deal was voted down by the pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

Incidents and accidents

January 2006: American Eagle Flight 3008 from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles, a Saab 340B+ operated by American Eagle Airlines, encountered icing at 11,000 feet and regained control only at 6,500 feet, after some 50 seconds' descent. During the incident, in which no one was injured, the autopilot disconnected, the stall alarm/clacker sounded, and the plane rolled sharply left and right, experienced vibration, and pitched down. Manual deice boots were activated and ice could be heard shedding off and striking the fuselage. After this incident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a safety recommendation which referenced other Saab 340 icing incidents, including the American Eagle Flight 4184 accident.

On November 11, 2019, American Eagle Flight 4125 slid off the taxiway at Chicago O’Hare Airport after landing on runway 10L in icy conditions. The Embraer 145LR was taken out of the snow later. None of the 41 occupants were injured.

On October 24, 2020, an American Eagle ERJ-145LR (N674RJ) operating as Envoy Air Flight 4194 from Miami to Freeport, Bahamas had a runway excursion upon landing. Nobody was injured in the crash. The aircraft had suffered main gear damage and the left main broke off.

On December 31, 2022, a baggage handler employed by Piedmont Airlines, an American Airlines regional carrier, was killed on the ramp at Montgomery Regional Airport when sucked into the jet engine of an Envoy Embraer 175 which was scheduled to fly as American Airlines Flight 3408.