Embraer's full-year net profit for 2012 more than tripled to $348 million from a year ago.

The Brazilian airframer recorded a 6.46% increase in revenue to $6.18 billion for the year ended 31 December 2012. Its operating profit meanwhile almost doubled to $612 million.

In its fourth quarter, Embraer posted a net profit of $123 million, a reversal from a loss of $91.8 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the quarter, however, dipped by 6.17% to $1.9 billion while operating profit hit $228 million.

The airframer's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margin for 2012 was 9.9%, surpassing its forecast of between 9.0% and 9.5%.

"These results demonstrate the company's strong operating leverage, which comes as a result of the high revenue generation in the last quarter of the year, allowing the company to maximise the utilisation of its installed capacity and dilute fixed costs in a more efficient manner," says Embraer.

In the last quarter of the year, the airframer delivered 23 commercial and 53 executive jets, bringing its total deliveries in 2012 to 106 commercial and 99 executive aircraft.

It added that the improvement in its net margin from 2.1% in 2011 to 5.6% in 2012 was mainly because the 2011 figure was negatively impacted by provisions related to financial guarantees connected to the American Airlines Chapter 11 restructuring process.

Embraer's firm order backlog totalled $12.5 billion at the end of 2012.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news