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Planemaker Embraer believes more than 200 E-Jets and E-Jet E2s could be flying in Australia by the end of the decade.
Speaking to Australian Aviation for an upcoming podcast, Raul Villaron, head of APAC for Embraer, said large purchases like Alliance’s E190 fleet expansion program, as well as the recent order by Virgin Australia for E190-E2s, point towards considerable local growth for Embraer’s regional jets.
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Australia’s E-Jet fleet currently numbers around 60 aircraft, the bulk of which are operated by Alliance.
“When you consider fleet size per country, actually, Australia is top five worldwide for Embraer,” said Villaron.
“It’s an important market, the Australian market, and we are very proud of what we have built there together with the airlines.
“Considering what’s on order, what’s coming from Alliance purchases and just natural organic growth of the market, 200 is a very conservative number for us to achieve by this decade.
“That’s why I think we will have more than 200 aircraft before 2030, and that will demand a lot of dedication from Embraer.”
The growth will not just come from the traditional FIFO market, suggested Villaron, but from regular passenger transport as well.
“When you look at the market demand and the need for connectivity, need for frequencies, there is a need of right-sizing in Australia – lots of aircraft flying with low load factors, lots of underserved markets, secondary markets that only have one flight a day, or even less, three per week,” he said.
“So, we see there that Embraer could play a role in helping smaller cities in Australia to be connected to the main hubs, to be well served by aviation.
“I think in the end, the RPT market could even be bigger than the FIFO market, but it needs a change in the way the hubs are fed and the way that the airlines operate with more frequencies and more connectivity.”
Villaron also told Australian Aviation he believed Bonza would have done better with E-Jet E2s, which he said offer around the same per-seat cost as the collapsed airline’s 737 MAX 8 fleet while being easier to fill.
“I think they would have had a much better chance to grow and to be efficient and to make money if they had the E2, for example – 100–120 seat aircraft. They could have improved a little bit on the yields, had better loads and grown their presence,” he said.
“For this type of operation, the E195-E2 would be perfect to address those markets.”
Alliance is currently Australia’s largest operator of E-Jets, with many used for its FIFO services, while Qantas is using 26 out of 30 options to wet lease E190s for QantasLink services. National Jet Express (NJE) added a seventh E190 in March, and its E-Jets were briefly used by Rex for Perth–Adelaide flights; NT-based Airnorth also operates a pair of E170s and three E190s.
