Its troubles with the wing production of the Embraer (ERJ) ERJ 190 will cause deliveries to slip this year between two weeks and a month, according to CEO Mauricio Botelho, who spoke before investors in reporting the company's third quarter results. In addition to the production problems experienced with Kawasaki Heavy Industries before Embraer took the wing production in-house, it is experiencing transition problems, causing delays. The problems are unique to the 190/195 program.

The company is forced to postpone delivery of 10 aircraft, reducing 2006 deliveries to 135 from the 145 originally forecast. Embraer expects to increase its 2007 deliveries by 10 to 160 but its actual 2007 forecast will not be out for another month. Botehlo said the problems may continue in the first quarter but will be completely resolved by the second quarter. JetBlue continues to experience dispatch reliability problems with its ERJ 190s. Embraer described the problem as spares availability.

Botelho reported that the backlog in the third quarter jumped by 30 percent over the previous quarter for both airline and executive jets, which included significant orders from China and Egypt. Its total backlog reached $13.3 billion during the quarter. That backlog does not include Northwest's order for 36 ERJ 175s (RAN, October 9, p.1). Sales resulted in 137 new firm orders for commercial aviation, announced during the quarter including 50 ERJ 145s and 50 ERJ 190s to HNA Group, 30 ERJ 175s to Republic, six ERJ 170s to EgyptAir and one ERJ 170 to an undisclosed customer. Botelho said executive jet sales were up including a backlog of 300 for the Phenom family of very light jets.

*Units identified in parentheses were aircraft delivered under operating leases

*Includes only deliveries of executive jets configured for transporting public authorities and aircraft delivered to state-run airlines

Source: Embraer

Note: Backlog includes orders for the Defense segment placed by state-run airlines

(Satena and TAME). Source: Embraer