Following months of speculation and rumour, Embraer has finally announced that it is expanding its business aviation portfolio with the development of a light and very light jet (VLJ).

Unlike the Legacy, the aircraft will not be derivatives of the company’s regional jets. So strong is Embraer’s belief in the success of the VLJ and light jet business models, it is going to construct brand-new airframes.

Before selecting the aircraft, the company conducted four global market surveys and advisory

board meetings, surveying 3,000 operators worldwide. Nine concept aircraft were tested and six remain under evaluation.

Due to enter service in mid-2008, the VLJ will compete with the Citation Mustang, Eclipse 500 and Adam A500. The aircraft will carry six to eight passengers and is priced at $2.75 million.

The $6.65 million light jet – which has a cabin size similar to the Hawker 800XP and Learjet 40 – will accommodate up to nine people (reaching Mach 0.78 with six people on board)and is expected to enter service in mid-2009.

At EBACE, senior vp for corporate aviation Luis Carlos Affonso told EBAN that the business plan and projected sales figures are based on the business jet operator market, remarking that air taxi operations would be an ‘upside’ and not the core basis for success of the VLJ (though it could, in the US at least, account for a large proportion

of sales).

“We like the concept of air taxi and believe it will work, so we have designed the aircraft for high utilisation and payload,” he said. “Considering the cabin volume, amenities and performance, we believe both aircraft will be successful in the European market, but we think that there will be fewer owner-operators here than in

the US.”

Affonso anticipates that both aircraft will prove popular with charter operators, corporations and high net worth individuals for intra-European flights.

“They have excellent range and short field performance and since they are designed for high utilisation, I think that fractional operators will like them a lot, especially the light jet.”

So, why is now the time to enter the lower end of the business jet market? “What’s really behind the movement is the fact that we are focused on commercial aviation, which accounts for 75 per cent of our revenue,” he said, “and our strategy is to continue growing and diversifying our business. Everything we learned with the Legacy over the last five years gave us the reassurance that we can be successful in this market.”

The company is considering developing business jet variants of its ERJ170 and 190 aircraft, though it is not yet prepared to compete directly with the BBJ and ACJ.

“We think it’s very risky to design a 135-seater, for instance, to compete with Boeing 737 and A319s. Our new aircraft are purpose-designed, so we are not doing derivatives only any more and are analysing all of the options.”