Embraer within the next two years will be ready to develop a new executive or commercial aircraft, an effort seemingly separate from the Brazilian manufacturer’s potential longer-term development of aircraft with novel propulsion systems.
“Our engineering teams are…conducting studies [of] potential new aircraft, either in the executive or commercial markets”, company chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto said on 18 March. “We believe we will be ready for a new business case in one-and-a-half years or two years from now.”
“Also, we are working on alternatives to fund these new developments, so… we will be able to go for new programmes without risking the company’s financial performance in the future,” he adds.
Gomes Neto, who spoke the day Embraer disclosed its full-year 2024 results, did not elaborate about what aircraft type the company might launch next.
But in recent years Embraer executives had pitched development a new passenger turboprop aircraft. They have also teased about a possible future larger business jet.
Embraer has been tossing around the turboprop idea for a decade or so, saying such an aircraft would have some 70-80 seats.
The idea makes sense because Franco-Italian firm ATR is the only Western manufacturer of turboprops in that class, standing alone after De Havilland Canada halted Dash 8-400 production amid the Covid-19 pandemic. And neither of those aircraft are new designs. A new Embraer turboprop could be attractive to airlines needing to replace old 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 and ERJ-145 regional jets, neither of which remains in production.
Despite market potential, Embraer paused the turboprop project at the end of 2022 after engine suppliers – which for decades have been updating existing turboprop designs but have not launched clean-sheet replacements – failed to meet Embraer’s required specifications.
Embraer Executive Jets CEO Michael Amalfitano last year floated the idea of developing a larger business jet, saying such a product could help the company retain customers looking to upgrade from Embraer’s midsize Praetor 500s and 600s.
“Longer term, you are going to see us look upstream at what’s next above the Praetor 600 super-midsize aircraft,” he said at the time, without elaborating. “Clearly, that’s an opportunity that’s intriguing for us to assess and evaluate.”
Meanwhile, and seemingly separate from the nearer-term plans, Embraer is studying possible development of four aircraft with new propulsion technologies under its Energia programme. Two of those aircraft are to have hybrid-electric propulsion systems, and two are to have hydrogen-fuel cell propulsion.
Embraer’s timeline for bringing the Energia concepts to market extends beyond 2030.
