With a seating capacity of eight passengers and a range of 3.250 nautical miles that would comfortably take in the Asia-Pacific region it could be just the job as a presidential jet.
But Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer is setting its sights much wider as we discovered when the company’s midsize Legacy 600 executive jet touched down at Ninoy Aquino International Airport earlier this week on a sales mission to win the hearts of cash rich corporate kingpins.
A steady stream of the good and great of this town dropped by to the airport hangar to check it out its sleek lines and plush interior, though the handsome price tag may have made it just a distant dream for many of them.
Manila was just one of the stops on the aircraft’s one-month long demonstration hop to 12 countries including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
Embraer (or Empress Brasileira de Aeronautica SA to give its full corporate title) is not flying this jet around just on a wing and a prayer. The world’s fourth-largest plane maker expects Asia’s demand for executive jets to grow 9 percent annually over the next decade, propelled by blue-chip companies and elite businesspeople.
“The business jet market in Asia Pacific is not a small market and is of great importance to Embraer,” says Jose Eduardo Costas, vice president for marketing and sales in Asia Pacific who expects sees the world’s corporate jet market to grow over the next decade to around $180 billion, which adds up to around 11,000 planes.
Apparently this is a downgrade from an earlier industry forecast of $230 billion and 14,000 planes which was made before the global economic meltdown which saw the corporate jet being the first casualty.
But being realistic, Embraer does not expect quick sales for its executive jets as the sector’s global market is unlikely to rebound until 2012, with the commercial aviation market projected to recover a year earlier.
We don’t know how many of the jets were sold during the Manila visit. But elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region firm orders for Embraer business jets account for about 6 percent of the Brazilian plane maker’s sales.
Of the 202 jets Embraer delivered last year, 38 were business jets, showing the sector’s growing role in the company’s portfolio.
Of Embraer’s six varieties of business jet, the company’s current Asia Pacific sales campaign zeroes in on the Legacy 600, which the company sees as well-suited for the region’s varied distances. With two rear fuselage-mounted turbofan engines and a T-tail, it cruises at up to Mach. And even with the $27.45-million price tag more than 170 Legacy 600s are flying in 26 countries.
Costas pointed out that eased financing terms facilitate the purchase of executive jets, and that the vast majority of buyers use the aircraft as a business tool to increase their productivity, rather than for sheer luxury or as a status symbol.
He added: “High-net-worth individuals are using them because they are quicker and far more efficient.”
Some buyers have acquired the jets under fractional ownership, a scheme similar to the time-share system in the property and hotel sectors. These owners use the aircraft for a given period and then charter them to other users during the time-off period. The fees charged are used to pay off the asset costs and operating expenses.
The cost of running a Legacy 600 is about $2 million a year.
Prior to the Manila trip the Legacy 600 stopped by Thailand where Embraer sold one Legacy 600 to an unnamed major Thai company, and solicited interest from five other Thai companies.
Currently Australia with 150 planes is Embraer’s most robust market. But it expects India to soon pass Australia and become Asia’s biggest market for executive jets.
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/sept/03/yehey/opinion/20090903opi5.html
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