Why these Brazilian airplanes loved by passengers are conquering short-haul flying

One man’s loss is another man’s gain, goes the saying – and as Boeing seems caught in a spiral of bad news, one aircraft manufacturer is quietly powering ahead. Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, which specializes in smaller narrow-body passenger jets, has been clocking up major announcements, and will soon comprise the entire regional fleet of American Airlines. And now, rumor has it that the company might be setting its sights even higher. A Wall Street Journal report last week suggested that Embraer – currently the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer – was planning a new narrow-body jet that could “compete head-on” with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max, which have cornered the global market. Embraer has denied the reports. Yet the company’s star is certainly on the rise. On May 2, Embraer delivered its 1,800th E-Jet aircraft: an E190-E2, to Royal Jordanian Airlines. Five days later, Singapore-based Scoot Airlines took delivery of its first Embraer: another E190-E2, the quietest and most fuel-efficient single-aisle jet on the market. Even in the US, where Boeing has traditionally ruled the roost, Embraer has been making waves. On March 26, United announced a refurb of its Embraer E175 fleet to add larger overhead bins on its Skywest-operated planes. The move will increase storage space by 80%. Skywest is the world’s largest operator of Embraer’s E175 aircraft. Then there’s American Airlines, which announced the purchase of 90 E175 aircraft in March, making AA’s entire regional fleet Embraer by the end of the decade. The love-in continued in April, when CEO Robert Isom praised the Brazilian company during a quarterly call. “The rest of the industry… can learn a lot from them,” he said, while also delivering a public rebuke to Boeing to, “Get your act together.”<br/>