One of Europe’s largest real estate developers has placed an order with Embraer for a Legacy aircraft. Spain’s Fadesa made the announcement at this year’s EBACE, adding that the aircraft would replace the company’s existing Hawker 700 in September of this year.

The Legacy will be based in La Coruña, where the company has its headquarters, and will carry out corporate missions to Spain, Portugal, Romania and Morocco, where Fadesa is currently active.

“We were looking for a larger aircraft,” said Jose Luis Macia, Fadesa financial director. “Our main criteria were reliability, cabin volume and value. The Legacy very quickly became the best, that is to say the only choice.”

Speaking to EBAN's Richard Evans at the show, Embraer vice chairman Sam Hill said: “Most of Fadesa's missions will fall in the category of 2,000nm or under although they will occasionally need to fly 3,000nm. They’ve already got several trips planned to the US.

“We’re delighted with the order and see it as a real breakthrough for us to start selling and delivering airplanes in Europe. We’re also delivering our first airplane into Europe next month and although we’re unable to disclose the customer’s name, the operator will be GV Executive of Zurich.”

Embraer is now waiting for JAA certification, which Hill says he expects next month. While the Fadesa order brings the total order book for the Legacy to 74 firm orders and 94 options, we asked Hill about the Legacy’s popularity specifically in Europe. He said: “We’ve just started making inroads into the European marketplace. We’re delivering two airplanes into Europe this year which may not seem like much but for us, it’s a beginning and we think it's going to grow substantially.

“At the current time, the US is still the largest market, followed by South America, where we’ve had some

sales in Brazil.”

An extra incentive for operators in Europe to buy Legacy aircraft is the announcement of the Total Legacy Care (TLC) maintenance programme. The programme covers scheduled and unscheduled airframe maintenance during the five-year period after the delivery of a customer’s aircraft.

When selecting the TLC program, the customer or operator of a Legacy pays a fixed hourly rate for the airframe maintenance based on the hours flown and operational parameters. Said a spokesman: “This covers virtually all the airframe line, base and heavy maintenance operations leaving the customer free to concentrate on the best utilisation of his Legacy.”

TLC is based on a minimum of 400 flight hours per year within five years and is applicable to European-based, JAR operated Legacy aircraft. The maintenance can be performed either by a qualified operator himself or by an authorised service centre, while engine support is provided under separate contract with Rolls-Royce.

With regard to Embraer's experiences at this year's EBACE, Sam Hill said: "We're very happy with the number of people who've visited the aircraft. We've had great exposure and one particular individual has told us he's going to purchase an airplane, having seen the one on the ramp."

He added: "The first half of the year has been very slow for all of us [manufacturers] but I see the second half of 2002 being a very robust time in the market."