Legacy 600 leads Embraer Australian bizjet push

Embraer Executive Jets has begun a big push to boost its presence in Australia with the recent launching of an Australian sales office, the visit to Sydney and Melbourne of a Phenom 300 cabin mockup, and a national tour by a Legacy 600 demonstrator.

“The main reason why we opened the office in Sydney earlier this year and we’re doing these demo tours is we want to increase our presence, we need to show the product,” Jose Eduardo Costas, Embraer Executive Jets VP for sales and marketing Asia Pacific, said during the Legacy 600 demonstration tour. “We need to bring the product, we need to expand our presence, we need to show the product. ” While Embraer is well known in Australia for its E-Jet, Brasilia and Bandeirante jet and regional airliners, its executive jet line is less well known. “Business jets are not well known,” said Costa, “and that’s the reason we are doing this promotion and presenting the product to the market, and having a stronger presence in the region. It is the only way to become more visible. ” If it is less known for corporate aircraft in Australia, that is perhaps because Embraer’s diversification into the business jet field has has been as rapid as it has been successful. It announced it was developing a business jet version of its 30-seat class ERJ‑135 regional jet in July 2000, with European and US certification for what would later be renamed the Legacy 600 following in mid 2002. Since then around 150 Legacy 600s have been delivered, making it a successful program in its own right, but also laying the foundation for a family of business jets that now stretches from the six-seat Phenom 100 very light jet to the Lineage 1000 corporate jet variant of the E-190 airliner. Today, the order backlog for executive jets stands at US$6. 5 billion.