Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer Embraer announced on Friday that it delivered a total of 130 aircraft in 2020, a drop of almost 35 percent compared to 2019. Of the 44 commercial aircraft and 86 executive jets shipped by the company this year, 71 were handed over in the fourth quarter (Q4). The Q4 deliveries, which were 10 aircraft under the same time period in 2019, included 28 commercial aircraft and 43 executive jets.
“Although deliveries accelerated during the fourth quarter of 2020 relative to the three previous quarters, they were heavily impacted, mostly in commercial aviation, due to COVID-19 pandemic,” Embraer said.
Embraer delivered its first Praetor 600 to launch customer Flexjet in Q4 2020 in addition to shipping its fourth C-390 Millennium multi-mission medium airlifter to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and completing the first European conversion of a Legacy 450 to a Praetor 500. The company says its firm order backlog totaled $14.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2020. As previously reported by AVweb, a deal to sell Embraer’s commercial aircraft division to Boeing fell through last year alongside COVID-19-related layoffs and an entry-into-service delay for Embraer’s new E175-E2 passenger jet.
