Hot on the heels of an exciting performance at the
Farnborough Airshow 2018, where Embraer enjoyed a bumper crop of new aircraft orders, the company’s new-generation aircraft — the E190-E2 — toured Africa, visiting Algiers, Morocco, Kenya, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa.
At each stop, the aircraft — reputed to be the world’s quietest and most-efficient passenger jet in its segment — attracted the attention of the local aviation community and the press, performing demonstration flights to showcase its capabilities.
Embraer’s (
www.embraer.com) Raul Villaron, VP for commercial sales (Middle East and Africa), said: “The E190-E2 cuts fuel burn by more than 17% and can operate in hot and harsh environments. Some of the airlines to which we presented the aircraft are already E-Jet operators, and they are eager to know more about the E2s.”
Africa’s air-transport market (measured in revenue passenger km) is expected to grow by 4.8% in the next 20 years.
Most of Africa’s seat capacity is currently in the above 150-seats segment.
However, 70% of intra-regional and domestic markets operated by narrow-body aircraft have fewer than 130 passengers on board on average.
This results in average load factors of about 60% — still far from the global average.
Mr Villaron said: “To respond to Africa’s needs for right-sizing, Embraer’s priority is to continue to grow our customer base there. This growth will come from new E-Jets — current and new ‘E2’ generation — as well as from pre-owned E-Jets and ERJs.”
Over the last 10 years, Embraer has grown considerably in Africa, moving from a fleet of around 40 aircraft (predominantly turboprops) to over 150 aircraft (mostly jets) flown by more than 50 operators.