"The introduction of the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 jets, in October 2005, in the very light and light jet categories, respectively, was the catalyst for our incredible growth. That was followed by the announcement of the luxurious Lineage 1000, in the Ultra Large segment, and nearly doubling the sales of our Legacy 600 over the past two years," said Ernest Edwards, Embraer Vice President, Marketing and Sales – USA, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, Executive Jets.
The following regional sales managers will be in charge of Embraer Executive Jets in their specific regions:
* Cameron Gowans for Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama;
* Gregory Babcock for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska;
* Michael Payne for Canada;
* Timon Huber for Mexico and the Caribbean.
Embraer has also announced that it has just completed a new revision of the Legacy 600 executive jet maintenance planning guide, which the company says will benefit operators with labor cost reductions of up to 18%.
According to the company, since the guide was published, in 2001, the man-hour to flight-hour ratio has dropped by half to the current rate of 0.65.
"Embraer is committed to ensuring that customers will fully benefit from the Legacy 600's high availability and low operating costs," said Maurício Aveiro, Embraer Vice President, Customer Support – Executive Jets.
"We revised the maintenance planning guide based on extensive interaction with our customers, something we are firmly convinced is vital for achieving long-lasting customer satisfaction and loyalty."
Seven workshops and an advisory board on customer support were held by the company to determine new ways to further improve the Legacy 600 maintenance planning guide. One of the main results was extending the interval between certain maintenance tasks.
For the Phenom 100, Phenom 300, and Lineage 1000 executive jets, the maintenance planning guides are also being developed based on the same methodology.
CAE
In other news, Embraer and CAE are working on extending their relationship to include pilot training for the EMBRAER 170/190 family of E-Jets and the Lineage 1000 executive jet, in support of Embraer's customers throughout the Americas.
Founded in 1947 and headquartered in Canada, with facilities in 19 countries, CAE is a leading provider of simulation and modelling technologies and integrated training services for civil and defense aviation.
"Our partnership with Embraer has proven to be successful, and we are happy to build on it by leveraging our global training center network," said Jeff Roberts, CAE's Group President, Innovation and Civil Training & Services.
The agreement for the EMBRAER 170/190 family and Lineage 1000 is in addition to the deal announced in October 2006 for initial and recurrent training for pilots and ground crew personnel of the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 jets.
A full joint venture agreement is expected to be finalized within the next few months. EMBRAER 170/190 pilot training is now offered at CAE's training center in Montreal, Canada.
"Our working relationship with CAE has been exceptional and we have the utmost confidence in their training approach," said Embraer's Senior Vice President, Aviation Services, Edson Carlos Mallaco. "We look forward to doing more business together."