Posted on April 1st, 2011
Embraer is more convinced that business aviation is facing a slow recovery than it was last year, when it last issued its forecast for the executive aviation sector. Claudio Camelier, Embraer vice president for executive jet market intelligence, said that there are still concerns about how sustainable the economic recovery will be with forecast gross domestic product growth rates having dipped slightly this year. The Brazilian manufacturer believes that total business jet deliveries this year, for all manufacturers, could end up about 50 units below last year’s tally of 763, the industry’s lowest number of jets handed over since 2005. Embraer itself now expects to deliver no more than 100 Phenom 100s and 300s, as well as 18 examples of its Legacy and Lineage jets. In the company’s view, a stronger business jet recovery won’t get under way until next year and 2013, and the market won’t get back to its 2008 delivery peak until 2017. Meanwhile, Camelier insisted that Embraer has “no plans” to launch an ultra-long-range aircraft at the top of its product range, while adding that “we are keeping our eyes on this gap.” He said that this is mainly because the company is too busy focusing on plans for a new airliner and the KC-390 military transport, not to mention ongoing work for the Legacy 450 and 500 programs.
