Embraer expects its commercial aircraft deliveries to decline by a quarter to 90 units this year, continuing a downward trend that saw it deliver 122 airliners in 2009 and 162 in 2008.
However, the company says it is seeing some signs of "mild" recovery in the sector, and expects new bookings in 2010 to surpass the low order intake in 2009.
"We can see some light at the end of the tunnel," says the company after revealing a 36% drop in its 2009 fiscal year (January-December) net profit to $248.5 million. The global economic crisis dramatically affected new aircraft orders for the 12-month period.
Earlier this year Flightglobal reported that Embraer's overall tally suffered as it lost existing orders for 25 ERJ-145s and 30 E-195s. The company's full-year net tally was minus 39 orders.
Embraer acknowledges that new orders "were frozen" during most of 2009, but secured a total 23 airliner sales by year-end.
Citing "some positive signs", Embraer is hopeful there may be some "mild recovery in the following quarters, which would lead to a higher number of new orders in 2010 when compared with 2009 numbers".
The company is targeting a total of 227 deliveries this year, the bulk of which (137) will be of its executive aircraft products.
Source: Flight International
