Embraer planning Japan office

Embraer is planning for a greater presence in Japan as it seeks to expand its ties in the APAC region.

Speaking on the sidelines at its finance summit event in Tokyo on April 8, Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO and president Arjan Meijer said the company is aiming to have a local presence in the country.

“We have an office based in Singapore, but we’ll also have a local Japanese office here,” said Meijer. He added that financing support in the region would likely still continue at the Singapore office. The company also has an office based in Beijing.

“The timing is yet to be seen, but that will come and I believe we need local support,” he continued.

The news follows the Brazilian OEM securing an order from Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) for up to 20 E190-E2 jets in February this year. ANA will be the first Japanese operator of the E2 family jets. Japan Airlines and Fuji Dream Airlines operate E1 jets in the region.

Embraer recently paused its E175-E2 jet programme until at least 2029. This followed two previous postponements, with the last being in 2022 – pausing the programme until 2027.

“For now it’s 2029, but we’ve postponed it three times,” said Meijer. “If we’ve done it three times, maybe there’s a fourth. We’ll see.”

The delay was largely driven by the US scope clause, which weakened the attractiveness of the E175-E2 jet. The scope clause has an 86,000 pound or 76-seat limit on operating regional aircraft. The E175-E2 jet exceeds the 86,000 pound limit at around 98,000 pounds.

Meijer said that unless US President Donald Trump were to “throw a curveball”, he doesn’t think the scope will change.

“It could be a platform to do something with in the future… but one thing’s for sure: if it’s not for the US, there’s no reason to go to the factories because it’s too niche of a market at the moment,” he said.  

The company said that it is continuing to see high demand for its E175-E1 jets. Meijer said during the presentation that Embraer was committed to continuing to deliver the aircraft for “many years into the future”. The company expects around 250 more of the jets to be delivered until the end of the decade.

Embraer has been less affected by the powdered metal contamination issues in the geared turbofan (GTF) engine, which power the Embraer E2 jets.

“It’s a lighter aircraft, which is important, and the E2 came to the market later so the number of affected engines was significantly lower,” said Meijer. “We expect the last powdered metal affected aircraft to go to the shop this year… we believe that by the end of this year, we will leave that behind us.”

He added: “The last key item that we need to approve is a combustor upgrade that’s going to come at the end of 2026.”

Embraer delivered 206 aircraft last year – up 14% on 2023 – of which 73 were from its commercial aviation segment, reaching the high end of its 70-73 guidance range. In addition, the company finished the year with a backlog of $26.3bn, including $10.2bn for its commercial aviation segment.

Embraer’s summit precedes Airline Economics’ Growth Frontiers Tokyo conference, which is being held the following day.