Business

Embraer Celebrates Completion of 1,000th ERJ

By Aviation.com Staff

posted: 04 October 2007 05:27 pm ET

: At a colorful ceremony held on Sept. 28 in Harbin, China, Embraer celebrated completion of the 1,000th ERJ-family regional jet. The aircraft in question is a 50-seat ERJ 145 for HNA Group airline Grand China Express. At the ceremony, employees and balloons spelled out the number 1,000. Credit: Embraer

Brazilian manufacturer Embraer has celebrated completion of its 1,000th ERJ-series regional jet.

The aircraft in question is a 50-seat ERJ 145 produced in China by Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry Co. Ltd. (HEAI), a joint venture that Embraer and China Aviation Industry Corporation II (AVIC II) created in 2003 to manufacture examples of the ERJ family of regional jets for the Chinese market.

HEAI's factory is located in Harbin, the 10th largest city in China. Harbin itself is located in Heilongjiang province in northeast China, between Inner Mongolia and Russia.

The 1000th ERJ will fly in the colors of Grand China Express, a regional airline owned by HNA Group, which is based in the large island of Hainan off the coast of southern China. The group -- which also owns Hainan Airlines -- ordered 50 ERJ 145s, as well as 50 of Embraer's larger and more recently designed E-Jet family of regional jet airliners.

Embraer has taken less than 11 years to achieve the 1,000-aircraft production milestone for the ERJ series, the first family of regional jets that it designed and produced.

The ERJ family of jets includes the 50-seat ERJ 145; the 37-seat ERJ 135; the 44-seat ERJ 140; and the ERJ 145XR, an extended-range version of the ERJ 145. The ERJ family offers airlines 98% commonality of parts and systems, as well as a common flight crew type rating. ERJ-family aircraft typically fly some 2,500 hours per year in airline service.

From the delivery of the first ERJ (an ERJ 145) to Continental Express in December 1996 to the present day, the ERJ family has accumulated over 12 million flight hours and has achieved an average schedule completion rate of more than 99.7 percent, Embraer said.

By June 30, 2007, Embraer had logged firm orders for 915 ERJ regional jets and options for 131 more, for a total of 1,046 aircraft.

In addition, Embraer had manufactured 110 ERJ-based Legacy executive jets for customers in 20 countries, as well as military versions for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) work. The military versions were ordered by Brazil, Greece and Mexico and were designated AEW&C, P-99, and RS/AGS aircraft by the armed forces of their respective countries.

The success of the ERJ 145 family and Embraer's successor E-Jet series has made the Brazilian company the fourth-largest manufacturer of commercial jet aircraft in the world, behind only Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier.

Although sales of ERJ-family aircraft have slowed as U.S. and European airlines increasingly opt for larger, more spacious regional jets, continuing strong sales of the company's E-Jet large regional jets look set to allow Embraer to overtake Bombardier soon in terms of commercial-jet sales.

Embraer makes E-Jets in four fuselage lengths -- the Embraer 170, the Embraer 175, the Embraer 190 and the Embraer 195 -- that offer passenger-cabin capacities ranging from 70 to 110 seats. The company also offers extended-range versions of the four E-Jet family members.