Karen Walker
European regional airline chief executives lined up at an Embraer press conference yesterday to announce a string of regional jet orders with a value that totalled $1.5 billion.
This latest collection of sales brings Embraer's Paris air show firm and option orders' total to date to $6.4 billion. On Monday, Swiss carrier Crossair placed a $4.9-billion contract with Embraer and became launch customer for the ERJ-170 and ERJ-190. Embraer president Mauricio Botelho says there may be at least one more sales announcement before the end of the show.
Yesterday's contracts were with:
* French carrier Regional Airlines, for 10 firm and five option 70-seater ERJ-170s;
* Dutch carrier KLM exel, for three firm and two option 50-seater ERJ-145s;
* French carrier Proteus, for eight firm ERJ-145s, five firm 37-seater ERJ-135s and five firm ERJ-170s;
* Austrian carrier Rheintalflug for two firm and three option ERJ-145s;
* Italian carrier Alitalia Express for six firm and 10 option ERJ-145s.
Proteus had been the European launch customer for the Fairchild Aerospace 328JET, but changed its mind. Proteus CEO Franklin Devaux says this was chiefly because he could not afford to wait for Fairchild's planned 428JET - the airline needs to move ahead with its 50-seater decision and Embraer, with its readily available -145 and "global family" concept won the day. "The commonality of airplanes is very important because training and maintenance costs are expensive," he says. "This was a strategic order." Embraer's regional jet backlog is now valued at $7 billion, or $18 billion with options. It includes firm and option orders for 890 -135s and -145s plus firm and option orders for 185 -170s and -190s. All -190 orders are for the larger -200 variant.
Source: Flight Daily News
