With the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Embraer Executive
Jets is positive about prospects for the aviation industry. The market for
business jets in India, as in the US, is likely to grow steadily, though not
at high rates, but at healthy rates, according to Claudio Camelier, Vice President
of Sales and Marketing, Asia Pacific and Middle East, Embraer Executive Jets.
On the eve of Aero India 2015, Camelier said “India is a country that has
the widest portfolio of Embraer Executive Jets – from the Phenom 100E to the
Lineage 1000 – with 20 jets in operation.” The aircraft in India are: one Lineage
1000; four Legacy 650; six Legacy 600 (including five VIP transport); one Phenom
300; six Pheonm 100/Phenom 100E; and two ERJ 135/shuttle.
The Phenom 300, he said, was the world’s most delivered business jets in 2013
and 2014. In the market it has over 310 Phenom 100 and over 240 Phenom 300.
At Aero India, Embraer will be showcasing Phenom 300, belonging to Joy Alukkas
Group. In the past five years, Embraer has had a good run to take the number one
slot in marketshare at 35 per cent , followed by Bombardier at 26 per cent; Hawker
Beechcraft (no longer in operation) 16 per cent; Dassault nine per cent; Cessna
seven per cent; Gulfstream three per cent and others four per cent.
In Asia-Pacific region, the main markets were India, Indonesia and Australia,
while there was considerable slow-down in China. India has 20 Embraer
Executive Jets; Indonesia 28 (eight light and 20 large jets); China 21 (one light
and 20 large jets) and Australia five (three light and two large jets). The point of
concern for Embraer has been China where the company is assessing whether
to hold on to its facility at Harbin (manufactures Legacy 650). “We have capacity
in Brazil and we are still assessing the situation.”
Giving global figures of EEJ fleet deliveries, Camelier said from 2010 when
it peaked to 145, there has been a slump. The deliveries for 2011 and 2012 were
99 each; 2013 – 119 and 2014 – 116. Indicating that there was slow recovery,
he attributed several reasons for the offtake, one of them being too many preowned
aircraft up for sale. The estimate was about 2000 aircraft of which nearly
500 would be aircraft less than 10 years old. The counter-challenge for the
pre-owned market could be positioning new aircraft for its low maintenance;
state-of-the art avionics; operational efficiency and other features. In countries
like India, there were issues of infrastructure – no fixed based operators (FBOs),
taxation and regulatory which were hampering offtake.
However, he said the company was hopeful of better prospects considering
that India with an anticipated GDP growth rate of 6.7 per cent and China with 6.5
per cent will have a positive impact. The 2015-2024 market forecast was 9,250
units worldwide of all business jet aircraft and Asia Pacific would account for 570
aircraft and China 835 aircraft (in the hope that the economy will bounce back).
