ALVERCA, PORTUGAL—Embraer is doubling down on its Services and Support business through a variety of new developments, including investments in new facilities, technologies and potential business lines.
During last week’s Farnborough Airshow, the OEM announced a slew of expansions to its global services network. Concurrently, it also opened a new Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan maintenance facility in Portugal through its subsidiary OGMA, which is expected to triple the company’s revenues by 2030. Carlos Naufel, president of Embraer Services and Support, spoke with Aviation Week Network at the OGMA event about the OEM’s announcements from Farnborough.
After recently doubling its maintenance capacity for Executive Jets in the U.S. by opening three new MRO facilities, Embraer is now planning to double its capacity for Executive Jets in Le Bourget, France by 2027. Naufel tells Aviation Week Network that Embraer is in final negotiations to launch another “big MRO” for commercial aviation at an undisclosed location.
Naufel says Embraer Services and Support (ESS) has reached a record $3.1 billion backlog this year, and Morgan Stanley recently projected that the business would double by 2028 and comprise 31% of Embraer’s revenues that year.
One new business line that could contribute to this growth is Embraer’s passenger-to-freighter conversions. Embraer debuted its first E190F conversion at Farnborough, and Naufel notes that ESS’s team in Brazil performed all of the modifications. The company is working on a service bulletin for the conversion and just certified it with the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil. Embraer is now working on FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency approvals, which it hopes to have by the end of this year.
Another growing business for ESS is its Pool Program. Naufel notes that more than 180 E-Jets have joined the Pool Program since last year, and 100% of its E-Jet E2 customers are part of the program. “We are still living in a challenging supply chain environment, so to me [the Pool Program] is a natural solution and I think everybody’s realizing that,” he says. Naufel adds that the Pool Program model allows Embraer to “derisk the supply chain because we have more power for negotiation and we have production lines, so we can leverage on that.”
Naufel also met with several parts manufacturer approval (PMA) companies at Farnborough to consider opportunities in this area. “Maybe that would be a forbidden subject for some OEMs, but being on the other side [referring to his time leading Azul’s technical department] opened my eyes that we could have partnerships with PMA providers,” he says. “I don’t see that as a problem or a competition.”
On the technology side, ESS highlighted growth in its flight simulator, Wi-Fi connectivity offerings and Aircraft Health Analysis and Diagnosis (AHEAD) platform. In partnership with CAE, Embraer opened the Asia-Pacific region’s first E-Jets E2 simulator in Singapore this year and launched a new full-flight simulator in the UK for Phenom 300s. Embraer will soon add a new simulator for the C-390 Millennium at an undisclosed location.
Naufel says Embraer now has one airline modifying 30 aircraft with its E-Jets Wi-Fi connectivity solution, which leverages Ka- and Ku-band satellites, and it is hoping to grow its connectivity offerings further.
The AHEAD platform, which is Embraer’s prognostic and predictive maintenance tool for the E1 and E2 aircraft families, recently received improvements to its functionality. For instance, Naufel says improvements were added to its fuel consumption module to help operators monitor APU usage. He notes that APU usage insights can help airlines better manage power to burn less fuel, which is a feature he says some airlines have been asking Embraer for.
Although it is still keeping most details quiet for now, Naufel says ESS is also making headway with its efforts to evaluate artificial intelligence for MRO. Naufel tells Aviation Week Network that ESS has around five projects running to evaluate how it could achieve better efficiency through AI. For instance, it is evaluating use cases where AI could be used for better parts planning. Naufel suggests AI could be used to learn parts needs and process orders more quickly—processing up to 1,000 transactions per minute. He says AI also could help Embraer better predict labor needs and turnaround times.
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