It’s all about flying high today as we speak to the world’s third largest commercial aircraft maker after Airbus and Boeing. Make a guess - we’re actually talking about Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer!

Founded in 1969, Embraer is a global aerospace company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets aircrafts and systems with businesses spanning across areas such as Commercial and Executive Aviation, Defense & Security, and Agricultural Aviation.

More notably, the firm started out making a turboprop plane called the Bandeirante, which was designed for both civilian and military purposes. 

50 over years down the road, the company delivered over 8,000 aircrafts. That translates to having one of its aircrafts taking off somewhere in the world every 10 seconds, we’re talking about mostly jets up to 150 seats serving regional routes.  

Why are we talking to Embraer you might ask? Well, the firm had reported sizable growth in all business units for the last quarter of 2023 with commercial aviation revenues rising 20 per cent. 

The number of Executive Aviation jet deliveries, according to media reports, were also at the highest in seven years. But how far is that driven by the post-pandemic travel recovery? Where are the bright spots for the firm?

And with Boeing in the spotlight amid a slew of safety incidents surrounding its 737 Max models and Airbus delays, what will this mean for Embraer? Would it move to build larger planes to rival the two jet makers as what media reports had suggested in recent days? 

Closer to home, Embraer had in April delivered the first of nine new Embraer E190-E2 aircraft to Scoot to allow the airline to expand its network growth strategy and expand into markets with smaller, but sizeable demand. But what can we look forward to from here? 

On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Raul Villaron, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Embraer Commercial Aviation.