Brazilian aerospace group Embraer has reported that it delivered fewer aircraft during the second quarter of this year than during the equivalent periods in previous years. Deliveries during this year’s second quarter totalled 13 executive jets and four commercial airliners. The executive jets were subdivided into nine in the light category and four in the large category.
According to Flightglobal (the UK aerospace news group which includes one of the world’s oldest aviation journals, Flight International), this meant that Embraer had delivered a total of only 31 jets in the first half of this year. This was less than half the number of deliveries the Brazilian group had made during the same period last year.
Embraer ascribed the reduced numbers of deliveries during the second quarter as being mainly owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to its deliveries of commercial and executive aircraft, the company also handed over the third KC-390 Millennium military transport and air-to-air refuelling aircraft to the Brazilian Air Force (which has another 25 on order, for a total of 28).
The second quarter did have some highlights for Embraer, however. It delivered its 1 600th EJet commercial airliner (to Helvetic Airlines in Switzerland). And it delivered its first Phenom 300E light business jet to a law firm in the US state of Texas.
It also enjoyed some contract upgrades. Helvetic converted four E190-E2 airliners (which can each accommodate up to 114 passengers) on firm order into four E195-E2s. (The E195-E2, which can take up to 146 passengers, is the biggest airliner produced by Embraer.) Helvetic now has firm orders for eight E190-E2s and four E195-E2s, with options for another dozen EJet-E2s. And Congo Airways upgraded its firm order for two E175-E2s (each of which can carry up to 90 passengers) into a firm order for two E190-E2s, with options for two more.
Embraer’s firm order backlog is currently worth $15.4-billion. The company is the world’s number one manufacturer of jet airliners with up to 150 seats.