News
Embraer, Mitsubishi land massive JAL order
Sept. 3, 2014, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil - Embraer SA, the world's biggest regional-jet maker, got an order for 15 E-Jets valued at $677 million for Japan Airlines Co., which also agreed to buy 32 planes from Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp.
September 3, 2014 By Bloomberg News
The first deliveries of E170 and E190 planes are expected next year,
Embraer said in a statement today. JAL has an option to buy 12 more of
the regional jets, which would increase the value to more than $1
billion based on list prices.
The sale will help shore up
Embraer's production of its current E-Jets as the Sao Jose dos Campos,
Brazil-based company prepares to build its next-generation planes
starting in 2018. Embraer is betting on a refreshed version of its
15-year-old regional-jet family as the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
unit joins the competition with Japan's first passenger jet.
"This
repeat order by Japan Airlines is an affirmation of the added value
that E-Jets have brought to its operations over the years," Paulo Cesar
Silva, chief executive officer of Embraer's commercial aviation unit,
said in the statement. "It has enabled the airline to grow its domestic
network in a sustainable way."
The 15-plane firm order will
double the number of Embraer planes in JAL's fleet. The Tokyo-based
carrier added the company's aircraft to its fleet in 2007.
Embraer rose 0.5 percent to 21.89 reais at 11:13 a.m. in Sao Paulo.
The
JAL agreement with Mitsubishi Aircraft is the unit's third this year
for planes the manufacturer expects to start delivering in 2017 after
test flights next year. Mitsubishi Aircraft, which has delayed air
trials for its jet three times, is challenging Embraer and has set a
goal of winning half the global regional-aircraft market during the next
20 years.
The JAL order brings Mitsubishi Aircraft's total to
400, Hideo Egawa, the planemaker's chief executive officer, told
reporters in Tokyo.
"Our sales force is very active in Europe,
Southeast Asia and North America," Egawa said. "We expect more orders as
well from Latin America and Africa."
The list price for the
Mitsubishi planes is 4.7 billion yen ($45 million) each, bringing the
agreed order's value to about 150 billion yen, Japan Airlines President
Yoshiharu Ueki told reporters in Tokyo.
