Embraer is confident of securing more commercial orders from Asia-Pacific, as the region’s carriers cash-in on the low fuel price and grow their fleet.
Speaking to Flightglobal on the sidelines of the first E190 delivery in Japan to J-Air, Embraer’s vice president of Asia-Pacific, Mark Dunnachie, says more carriers are also consolidating their fleet around the E-Jets, citing India's Air Costa as one of its main customers with 25 E2-190s and 25 E2-195s on order.
These factors, Embraer says, will enable production of the E-Jets to increase in tandem with the E2 launch in 2018.
“We are also not seeing any major changes in fleet planning in the long-term, but airlines go after any small competitive advantage they see – and our products offer those (advantages)," he says, pointing to the 25% lower maintenance costs on its E2s, and a three-day conversion of pilot from E1 to E2 status.
Dunnachie also believes that Embraer has an edge over new regional aircraft manufacturers, such as the Japanese MRJ regional jet, since it its EJets are able to offer more capacity. The aircraft also has a proven reliability.
The E175 offers between 76 to 88 seats, a minimum of six more seats than the MRJ70. While the E190 offers between 96 to 114 seats, where the MRJ90 offers 92. It also has the E195, which can sit up to 124 passengers.
At the recent Singapore Airshow, Embraer projected a demand of 1,570 new deliveries of 70 to 130-seat jets in Asia-Pacific over the next 20 years, valued at $75 billion and representing 25% of the worldwide demand for the segment.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
