Embraer banks on Farnborough Airshow to boost C-390 cargo plane sales

MELBOURNE, Australia — Ahead of the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow near London next week, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer has provided the strongest hints yet that it sees additional orders for its C-390 Millenium tactical airlifter to come from the event.

Speaking to reporters at Embraer’s civil aircraft production facility in São José dos Campos last month, the company’s president and CEO, Francisco Gomes, said that C-390 has “a good sales momentum” and he is “very excited” about further opportunities in coming years.

“Farnborough will be the best show ever for Embraer ,” Gomes predicted.

Embraer will display two C-390s at the show, representing the first two customers – Brazil and Portugal.

Embraer holds 40 commitments for the turbofan-powered C-390 and on June 26 it delivered the second of five aircraft to the Portuguese Air Force. Portugal’s aircraft are “NATO Standard” aircraft with Link 16 and NATO-compatible communications and encryption systems.

“The Portuguese opened the door for us in the NATO community and we’re expanding our relationship with the Portuguese government and Portuguese Air Force,” Bosca da Costa Jr., head of Embraer’s defense and security arm, told Defense News.

“We’re expecting to deliver two additional units: one for Hungary and another for Brazil (and) we’re expecting to end 2024 with ten aircraft in service around the globe.”

NATO countries form one of four strategic markets for the C-390 identified by Embraer, with the others including India, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

India is looking to replace its Soviet-era Antonov An-32 transports under Delhi’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) program, and da Costa says it has a requirement for between 40 and 80 aircraft, with a decision anticipated in the next two to four years. To meet the government’s “Make in India” requirements, Embraer has teamed with Mahindra Aerospace.

“We have a strong localization plan as a requirement in this campaign, and that’s the reason Embraer has chosen Mahindra as a partner,” da Costa said. “We’re shaping the campaign together and, if successful, we are expecting to establish a final assembly line for the aircraft in India.

While da Costa says Saudi Arabia doesn’t yet have an open tender for its C-130 Hercules replacement program, he sees a potential for about 25 C-390s.

“We’re in an early engagement phase with them and we’re also expecting a decision in the next two to four years,” he said.

Da Costa adds that the United States is another important potential market for the C-390.

“We believe the C-390 will play an important role in the U.S. market and we are there trying to pitch the C-390 to the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, because we do believe the C-390 would add additional value to those entities,” he said.

Overall, da Costa sees a potential market for 500 aircraft over the next 20 years, as countries seek to replace their ageing fleets of C-130s and Russian transport aircraft. Of this total, he estimates 206 aircraft will be needed in the near-term to replace aircraft that are already 45 years old.

“The C-390′s ready to capture a good portion of this market and that’s the reason we’re so optimistic about the future of this airplane,” he said. “In the coming months we are expecting to announce some good news and we’ll have more to share at Farnborough.”

Nigel Pittaway is the Australia correspondent for Defense News.

澳大利亚墨尔本——在下周伦敦附近举行的 2024 年范堡罗国际航展之前，巴西飞机制造商 Embraer 给出了迄今为止最强烈​​的暗示，表示预计此次航展将为其 C-390 千禧战术运输机带来更多订单。

上个月，巴西航空工业公司总裁兼首席执行官弗朗西斯科·戈麦斯在位于圣若泽杜斯坎普斯的巴西航空工业公司民用飞机生产基地对记者表示，C-390“销售势头良好”，他对未来几年的更多机会感到“非常兴奋”。

戈麦斯预测：“范堡罗展会将是巴西航空工业公司有史以来最棒的展会。”

巴西航空工业公司将在展会上展出两架 C-390 飞机，分别代表其前两个客户——巴西和葡萄牙。

巴西航空工业公司已获得40架C-390涡扇动力运输机的订单，并于6月26日向葡萄牙空军交付了五架飞机中的第二架。葡萄牙的这批飞机符合“北约标准”，配备Link 16数据链以及与北约兼容的通信和加密系统。

“葡萄牙为我们打开了北约大家庭的大门，我们正在扩大与葡萄牙政府和葡萄牙空军的关系，”巴西航空工业公司防务与安全部门负责人博斯卡·达·科斯塔 (Bosca da Costa Jr.) 告诉《防务新闻》。

“我们预计将再交付两架飞机：一架给匈牙利，另一架给巴西，预计到 2024 年底，全球将有十架飞机投入使用。”

北约国家是巴西航空工业公司确定的 C-390 的四个战略市场之一，其他三个市场包括印度、沙特阿拉伯和美国。

印度正计划根据德里的“中型运输机”（MTA）项目，替换其苏联时代的安-32运输机。达科斯塔表示，印度需要采购40至80架飞机，预计将在未来两到四年内做出决定。为了满足政府“印度制造”的要求，巴西航空工业公司（Embraer）已与马恒达航空航天公司（Mahindra Aerospace）展开合作。

达科斯塔表示：“我们此次竞标的一项重要要求是制定强有力的本地化计划，这也是巴西航空工业公司选择马恒达作为合作伙伴的原因。我们正在共同制定竞标方案，如果成功，我们计划在印度建立一条飞机总装线。”

达科斯塔表示，沙特阿拉伯尚未就其 C-130 大力神运输机的替换计划进行公开招标，但他认为沙特阿拉伯有可能采购大约 25 架 C-390 运输机。

他说：“我们目前正处于与他们接触的早期阶段，预计未来两到四年内会做出决定。”

达科斯塔补充说，美国是 C-390 的另一个重要潜在市场。

他说：“我们相信C-390将在美国市场发挥重要作用，我们正在努力向美国海军陆战队和美国空军特种作战司令部推销C-390，因为我们相信C-390将为这些机构带来额外的价值。”

总体而言，达科斯塔认为未来20年潜在市场需求量为500架飞机，因为各国都在寻求替换其老旧的C-130和俄罗斯运输机机队。他估计，其中近期需要206架飞机来替换机龄已达45年的飞机。

“C-390已经准备好占据相当大的市场份额，这就是我们对这款飞机的未来如此乐观的原因，”他说。“未来几个月，我们预计会宣布一些好消息，在范堡罗航展上我们还会分享更多信息。”

Nigel Pittaway 是《国防新闻》驻澳大利亚记者。