Why Embraer thinks regional travel – and regional jets – will emerge stronger

Embraer expects regional airports and smaller passenger aircraft will emerge on top from the coronavirus pandemic due to population shifts away from big cities. “We do believe that the small airplane will have more relevance in the airline business model in the future,” Embraer strategic marketing director Daniel Galhardo Gomes said Wednesday. “Demand will come back, but it will come back in a different way.” Galhardo bases his prediction on factors including the recent surge in remote working, which is allowing people and companies to relocate from big cities to smaller towns. “We will see people looking for other places to live. They don’t have to live in big centres anymore,” Galhardo says. “Companies actually will also be able to establish their headquarters away from big centres.” Additionally, anti-globalisation sentiment in the US, Europe, Asia and elsewhere has led some manufacturers and suppliers return to home countries, centralising operations there. In the post-virus environment, such factors will drive more demand for regional and inter-regional travel, benefiting regional-aircraft makers like Brazil’s Embraer, Galhardo predicts. “There will be more business connections domestically and inter-regionally,” he adds. “It is definitely a matter of adjusting the [airline] business model.” Story has more.<br/>