By Rebecca Rayko, Editor
Le BOURGET - Embraer has been rolling in orders so far in Paris, leaving the competition behind in terms of dollars and units - even taking a few orders out from under them.
Orders for ERJs today hovered at the $1 billion mark following announcements by five European airlines. The largest came from Regional Airlines of France, another was the order from Alitalia which AWN revealed yesterday. Rounding out today's Embraer order book were KLM exel, Proteus Airlines and Rheintalflug.
Regional Airlines plans to operate the full spectrum of Embraer regional aircraft, from the Brasilia to Embraer's newest regional jet family.
An Embraer operator for many years and the European launch customer for the ERJ-145, Regional Airlines today revealed plans to buy 15 ERJ-170 70-seater twinjets - 10 firm plus options for five. The order is valued at $350 million. Deliveries will begin in the second half of 2002.
Regional Airlines currently operates the largest fleet of ERJ-145s in Europe. Regional Airlines president Jean Paul Dubreuil said he expects the ERJ-170 to prove as popular with its customers as the other Embraer fleet members.
Dubreuil said he was pleasantly surprised when Embraer revealed plans to enter the 70-seat market earlier this year. Dubreuil said that Embraer president Mauricio Botelho indicated at the ERA conference late last year that Embraer was too busy producing the 50-seat ERJ-145 to even consider a new RJ family.
Dubreuil said he was disappointed that no European regional manufacturer could offer them a jet in the 70-seat category early enough for Regional's expansion plans.
"The first delivery in December 2002 needs to be on time because we already have routes too big, flying with 70% loads," he said.
By 2005, Dubreuil expects Regional to have up to 40 ERJs, and together with its Flandre Air subsidiary will have 20 Embraer Brasilias in the fleet.
Proteus Airlines, another French carrier, placed an order for eight ERJ-145, five ERJ-135s and in a surprise to even Embraer's Mauricio Botelho ordered five ERJ-170s.
Originally Proteus planned to option another five ERJ-135s, but at the press conference announced it would take the new 70-seat jets instead.
The order also marks a shift in preference for Proteus - who was previously the launch customer for the Fairchild Aerospace 328JET. Proteus said they decided against the Fairchild 30-seater, wanting to go with jet aircraft from the same family.
Timing was another factor in choosing Embraer over Fairchild, Proteus said. Proteus is a franchise partner for Air France, which told the regional carrier to be ready to operate a 50-seat jet soon. The wait for a Fairchild 50-seat RJ was too long, said Proteus, so there was no other choice than Embraer.
Embraer valued the Proteus order at $290 million. Deliveries for the ERJ-145s will begin in October, adn the first ERJ-135 will come next April. Since the ERJ-170 was a surprise to Embraer, no delivery date was available to release.
The Alitalia ERJ order was revealed in detail as well. Alitalia will take six ERJ-145s plus options on a further 10. Deliveries will begin in 2000.
The order with options is valued at $290 million.
The ERJs will be operated by Alitalia Express, which will connect traffic between hubs for Alitalia Airlines. Currently Alitalia Express operates a fleet of nine ATR-42s and four ATR-72.
KLM exel will enter the jet era with an order for three ERJ-145s. This small regional carrier from The Netherlands will also take options on two more of the 50-seaters. First delivery is planned for February 2000.
The KLM/Northwest/Alitalia alliance partner operates four 30-seat EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops. The ERJ-145s will be expansion aircraft, not replacements.
Rheintalflug of Austria placed a $90 million order for two ERJ-145s and three options for the ERJ-135. The carrier is a Lurthansa team member and provides charter services to the Mediterranean.
Rheintalflug will use the new ERJs to supplement its fleet of four Dash 8-300s.
