Brazil-based global major aerospace group Embraer – the world’s number three maker of jet airliners – has released its deliveries and order backlog report for the first quarter of this year (1Q24). Deliveries of its commercial and executive (or business) aircraft types are up 67%, year-on-year. And its order backlog is the highest it has been in seven years.

The order backlog, at the end of 1Q24, stood at $21.1-billion, a 13% increase over the figure for 4Q23. During 1Q24, the company’s commercial jets (airliners) order backlog increased by $2.3-billion (a 26% jump, quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q)), and its business jet order backlog rose by $4.6-billion (a 7% rise q-o-q). Its services and support backlog neither rose nor fell, while its defence and security backlog (at $2.4-billion) declined by -4%. (Recent selections, by some countries, of the Embraer C-390 airlifter for their air forces, have not yet been incorporated into the defence and security backlog.)

In terms of number of aircraft, the group’s airliner order backlog stood at 381 at the end of 1Q24. This was composed of 187 E175s (its only original generation E-Jet family airliner still in production), 15 E190-E2s and 179 E195-E2s (these are the two members of its next-generation EJet-E2 family currently in production, and the E195-E2 is its biggest airliner type).

In terms of deliveries, Embraer handed over to customers the same number of airliners that it did in 1Q23 – seven. But the composition of deliveries was slightly different. In 1Q24 the company delivered four E195-E2s and three E175s, whereas in 1Q23 it had delivered five E195-E2s and only two E175s. The group’s guidance for this year is that it will deliver between 72 and 80 jet airliners.

In total, the company has so far delivered 756 E175s, 19 E190-E2s and 93 E195-E2s.  

It was the business aviation segment that saw the big increase in deliveries, from the eight of 1Q23 to 18 during 1Q24 (an increase of 83%). Of the 1Q24 deliveries, 11 were light jets, subdivided into one Phenom 100s and 10 Phenom 300s. The other seven were medium jets, composed of three Praetor 500s and four Praetor 600s. Embraer’s guidance is that it will deliver between 125 and 135 business jets this year.

Strikingly, the group’s commercial and executive aircraft deliveries have, over the past five years, shown a strong seasonality. On average, 11% of deliveries have been placed during the first quarter, followed by 22% in the second quarter, with another 22% in the third quarter and no less than 45% in the fourth quarter. The company is implementing a ‘production levelling plan’ to achieve a stable production flow throughout the year.