By Rebecca Rayko,
AWN Editor
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - At the opening ceremony of RAA 2000 the spotlight was clearly on Embraer. The Brazilian planemaker unveiled a "totally redesigned" mockup of the ERJ-170/190 with a great deal of fanfare, which seemed to be matched by high levels of interest by conference attendees.
A preliminary mockup was displayed for the first time at the Paris Air Show last July, but as development for the ERJ-170/190 progressed, a new main cabin mockup was built. The new cabin bears a far greater fidelity to the actual aircraft's passenger cabin, Embraer said.
Embraer's Mark Hale, director of sales, says the 70- and 90-seat regional jet program is proceeding on schedule and that feedback from prospective customers about the cabin has been extremely positive.
Embraer recently completed the joint definition phase for the ERJ-170 and the detailed design phase has just begun. The ERJ-190 recently began the initial design phase.
First flight for the ERJ-170 is set for 4Q of 2001, and first flight for the ERJ-190 is scheduled for mid-2003.
After being displayed at RAA 2000, the main cabin mockup will continue its world tour stopping next at Embraer's Fort Lauderdale, Florida, facilities. There it will be shown to potential customers during the fourth advisory board meeting. Its next stop will be at the Farnborough Air Show in July, then to the European Regional Airline Association meeting in September.
Orders for the program stand at 175 with Crossair, the launch customer, the largest of the two airline customers (60 firm plus 100 options). Regional Airlines has ordered 10 firm and five options.
The ERJ-170 lists for $22 million, and the ERJ-190-100 and -200 versions sell for $26 million and $28 million, respectively.
No meeting with Embraer would be complete without mention of the controversial ProEx financing tool (see related story). Embraer executive vice president Frederico Curado says that despite the recent WTO ruling, "ProEx as we know it won't change."
What will change is "the amount of equalization" [of interest rates], which was found to be too high and will be reduced, Curado says.
However, Curado stands firm that existing deals will be honored, meaning that the many airline customers who received favorable financing rates through ProEx in the past can expect their contracts to remain unchanged.
