Embraer Phenom

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has clinched US certification for its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] light business jet less than two weeks after the Brazilian civil aviation authority ANAC granted type and production certification for the $8.14 million, seven-seat aircraft.
[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] is now gearing up to deliver the first Pratt & Whitney Canada PW535E-powered aircraft "in the coming weeks". Embraer says its orderbook for the Phenom 300 and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] very light jet stablemate totals about 800 aircraft

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]is maintaining it is on track to meet full-year delivery targets for the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] despite a slow first quarter.

The Brazilian manufacturer delivered only 16 Phenom 100s and one Phenom 300 in the first three months of 2010.

But Embraer Executive Jets vice-president sales and marketing for North America Ernest Edwards says Embraer is on track to meet its 2010 Phenom family delivery target of 120 aircraft.

"I don't anticipate problems meeting the delivery objectives for this year," he says.

Edwards says the delivery figure for the first three months of this year may seem small because the factory was emptied in December with 42 Phenom 100 deliveries in one month.
He says Embraer expects to make up the relatively slow first quarter with a higher rate of deliveries the rest of the year.

He adds that while [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], resulting in the unusually high figure for December, "today we don't see financing as an issue".

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], falling more than 10 aircraft short of its target. Edwards says there are no more [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which affected Phenom 100 output in the first half of 2009, and the line is now at full speed. "The Phenom 100 production line is flowing well now," he says.

After delivering its first Phenom 300 at the end of December and a second aircraft in January, the Brazilian airframer did not deliver a single Phenom 300 in February or March.
But Edwards says deliveries are set to resume by the end of April and the two-month gap in customer deliveries was driven by Embraer's decision to make small modifications to the aircraft.

"We're trying to get the quality right before delivery," he says.

He adds that Embraer had preferred to modify the first two production aircraft before delivery, but the customers required the aircraft in December and January, respectively. As a result these ended up being delivered significantly earlier than the third aircraft, which was modified before delivery.

While Embraer delivered only one Phenom 300 in the first quarter, Edwards points out that a second aircraft was completed and is being used as a company-owned demonstrator.
The demonstrator is in Europe in the lead-up to EBACE and is scheduled to tour the USA in May.

While there are only two Phenom 300s in service, there are now over 120 Phenom 100s operating.

Edwards says the Phenom 100 fleet has already accumulated more than 10,000 flights.

While Embraer has more than 600 firm orders for the Phenom family, Edwards says there are some available
delivery slots this year. He says for the Phenom 300 there are "couple of slots" in December that were created when Embraer decided in November to marginally increase Phenom 300 production for 2010.

For the Phenom 100 he says "we have three or four slots" that opened from customer cancellations.

While sales have been slow over the past year, Edwards says there is signs the market is starting to recover, including increased utilisation at charter operators.

"We're beginning to see what we think is a slow recovery," Edwards says.
"Slowly the buyers are coming out hibernation. We're hoping they come out of full hibernation and start buying airplanes again."

Embraer 2010 Phenom forecast unchanged despite 300 ramp-up hurdles

Embraer says it is struggling with its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] early production ramp-up, but the business unit's top executive says the company's 2010 delivery forecast remains unchanged.
Luis Carlos Affonso, executive jets executive vice-president, says Embraer has encountered "normal ramp-up challenges" during its early production run, with some design changes slower to take hold with suppliers. Affonso says Embraer has opted to streamline the assembly before giving a green light for a higher production rate at its Gaviao Peixoto final assembly line.

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Affonso declines to identify the parts that were particularly troublesome, but adds that despite the challenges, "we are happy with the Phenom 300 ramp-up".
Affonso says Embraer has "seen some movements on the customer side" with deferrals and cancellations, but those have mostly been limited to the smaller Phenom 100. The company holds one open delivery position for 2011.
Embraer has delivered around 10 Phenom 300s to date, behind its pace for the year. Affonso says the company plans to deliver 120 Phenom 100s and 300s, achieving its 2010 forecast.
As of 10 September, Embraer had the 36th Phenom 300 and 216th Phenom 100 on its final assembly line at Gaviao Peixoto.
Embraer holds 550 firm orders from 44 countries for the Phenom 100 and 300

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has narrowed a long-term vision first revealed seven months ago to focus on filling a single gap in its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] product line-up.

The Brazilian manufacturer now lists the "ultra-long-range" segment as the single gap within its relentlessly expanding product portfolio, said Ernest Edwards, vice-president of Embraer executive aircraft.
By invoking the long-range jet category, Edwards described perhaps the fastest-growing segment of the business aviation market, with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Dassault Falcon 7X and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] G650 and G550 already entrenched as potential competitors.

But Embraer seems in no rush to reveal the timing or the product it has in mind.
"Today is probably not the time to launch a new aircraft in that category," Edwards said.

Edwards spoke roughly seven months after Frederico Curado, Embraer chief executive, told Flightglobal at the National Business Aviation Association convention that there were two gaps in the company's business aircraft portfolio.
In addition to the ultra-long-range segment, Curado also listed the "very-large-cabin" slice of the market at the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] show. That appears to be a reference to the category now dominated by the likes of the Challenger 850, Falcon 900 LX and G450 and G500. However, Edwards clarified yesterday that only the ultra-long-range segment remains in the company's long-range vision for the business aircraft sector.

In the past five years, Embraer has rapidly grown into a business aviation force, with the Phenom 100 and 300 series already dominating the entry-level and light business jet markets. Meanwhile, the company is close to introducing the clean-sheet Embraer 450 and 500 in the super-light and midsize categories, respectively.
Embraer is currently manufacturing the first and second prototypes during the detailed design and certification phase, with first flight still on tract for the second half of this year, said Claudio Camelier, vice-president of marketing for Embraer executive jets.

Dossier à suivre attentivement !

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s executive jets division is sticking to its aim of delivering 100 light jets and 18 large jets this year, despite its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

However, the Brazilian airframer has ruled out launching a new corporate aircraft in the foreseeable future.

In the first six months of 2011, Embraer [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 26 aircraft from its light-jet range, made up of the Phenom 100 and 300. This represented a drop of 30 from the corresponding figure for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Meanwhile, deliveries of the large executive jets - the Legacy 600 and 650 and Lineage 1000 - rose from three to five.

Embraer Executive Jets president Ernest Edwards has restated a delivery forecast of 74 Phenoms and 13 of the large jets in this year's second half - partly on the basis that US corporate profits have risen above the peak seen in 2007.

"I don't think anybody feels ashamed of using a corporate airplane for their business today. Certainly, they shouldn't feel ashamed, with the kind of results they're bringing in," said Edwards, who has headed the division since May and is based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Commenting on the stock-market tumbles of late August, Edwards said: "When you look at all the fundamentals in the US economy, there is no reason for what happened."

He added: "There's just a little nervousness there about whether this is just a blip or a double dip. All the combined analysis says there's no reason for this, other than that there's been some scaremongering going on."

Edwards dismissed any likelihood of an imminent move to fill the gap between Embraer's large, $30 million [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and ultra-large, $50 million [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with a new ultra-long-range type. "As a sales team, my team would love to fill the hole that is there, but engineering are saying, 'Guys, give us a break'," he said. "The engineers are just about maxed out, so they need a break from corporate jets for a while."

Embraer says first flight of its mid-sized, clean-sheet, fly-by-wire [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] is on course to take place by year-end.

Mating of the second prototype's fuselage sections was achieved in late August, the same task having been executed on the first prototype [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

The manufacturer, which also has the mid-light [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in development, has disclosed that it will offer a "green" version of its Lineage 1000 - without interior furnishings - at a price still to be defined, and that it is working to gain approval for the same type to operate at the UK's London City airport, which requires steep-approach capability.

Over the next 10 years, Embraer foresees a total market for 11,275 new business jets worth a combined $260 billion.