Commercial aircraft manufacturing remains, for the most part, a de facto duopoly with Boeing and Airbus vying for supremacy in the market for mid-sized airliners and larger. However, Brazil’s Embraer has emerged as a champion of the regional and small narrowbody jet market.
But what are the key elements that have made it possible for the Brazilian manufacturer, which is considerably smaller than its two giant competitors, to successfully carve a niche for itself in this extremely capital-intensive and competitive industry?
AeroTime caught up with Arjan Meijer, President and CEO of Embraer Commercial Aviation, during the Sustainable Aero Festival, an event which gathered aerospace startups, industry leaders and investors in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on December 2-3, 2025.
Meijer leads one of Embraer’s three major business areas, Embraer Commercial Aviation, which, based in Amsterdam, is responsible for the firm’s commercial aircraft product line. The other two major product areas at Embraer are Defense and Executive Jets.
The E2 business case
During the ensuing conversation, Meijer shared some insights with AeroTime about the current status of Embraer’s flagship program in commercial aviation, the E2, and also offered a glimpse at other longer-term initiatives, such as the Energia program to develop a clean-sheet sustainable aircraft.
The E2, the first of which was delivered to Norwegian airline Widerøe in 2018, is the latest generation of Embraer’s popular E-Jet family, which includes the E170/175 and E190/195, covering the segment ranging from 65 to 120 seats.
“The E2 family is the most efficient option that there is right now in the market in the narrowbody space,” Meijer said. “It not only has the lowest fuel burn per seat but is also the quietest. We also believe it is the best complementary aircraft to the larger narrowbodies like the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and the A320neo. Customers that operate it are really telling us that the cost per seat is the same as that of bigger narrowbodies.”
Embraer has delivered more than 1,800 E-Jets since the launch of this aircraft family in 2004. The vast majority of these, close to 1,700 of them, are first generation E1s. Many of those operators are now among the most promising prospects for the E2, as they start thinking of options to replace and modernize their fleets within the next few years. However, Meijer explained, it is not the only market Embraer is targeting.
“There are three key customer segments we are targeting with the E2. First are the existing E-Jet operators. This [the E2] is the ideal replacement for those aircraft. It can even be flown by the same pilots.
“Next are the large network carriers that fly larger narrowbody aircraft. For them, the E2 is a very good complement in order to fly smaller routes with more frequencies and at the same per seat cost as a larger narrowbody.
“The third one is low-cost carriers that also fly with bigger narrowbodies. We are engaging more and more in conversations with them about adding smaller complementary aircraft like the E2.”
An example of the latter is Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, which ordered nine E190 E2s in 2023 to complement a fleet which includes much larger A320s and B787s.
Meijer did not appear concerned about a number of major airlines deciding to upgauge their fleets with ever larger narrowbody aircraft.
“Upgauging is certainly happening in the larger narrowbody segment as the smaller members of the family like the A320 tend to be less efficient than their larger brothers. However, this is creating a larger gap between regional aircraft and those larger narrowbodies, which is increasing the demand for small narrowbodies like the E2,” he explained. “The most efficient and versatile fleet for an airline today is to use an E2 to increase frequency and open new markets and larger narrowbodies for its trunk routes and congested airports. One complements the other.”
However, some operators that were traditionally confined to regional or very local operations, such as Widerøe in Europe, or Porter in Canada, have been opening new longer-range markets with their E2s.
So, could there be any opportunities for Embraer to move up to making larger planes? Meijer was clear about this possibility.
“First of all, Embraer is honored that airlines are shouting out to us to do something, because that’s what we’re seeing at the moment,” he said. “Airlines are showing their interest in Embraer. We have aircraft that show what we’re capable of. The E195 E2 is already larger than an A320 in terms of length, our KC390 is a multi-purpose aircraft for the military that has the size of a Boeing 737, and the width of a B767. So, capability-wise there’s a lot that Embraer can do.
“But today, we already have the E2, the KC390, the Phenom, the Praetor…a very good product line across our businesses. That’s where our priorities sit at the moment, and we have no concrete plans to move forward [towards making larger airplanes].”
On Embraer’s key strengths
Is it feasible, though, for a relatively small (compared to the two giants Boeing and Airbus) aircraft maker to go it alone? And just what is the secret ingredient that allows Embraer to be so competitive in these markets?
“The “special sauce” for Embraer is its engineers,” Meijer said “We, at Embraer, say our people are what makes us fly. And if you see what Embraer has been doing, if you look back all the way to the 2000s, we’ve brought a new model to the market every year. There’s an enormous development power in Brazil.”
Embraer is often praised in industry circles for its technical competence. In a recent interview with AeroTime, for example, legendary aviation entrepreneur Steven Udvar-Házy spoke highly of the Brazilian firm’s engineering prowess. So, it’s perhaps not surprising that Meijer brought this up in conversation when talking about Embraer’s capacity to execute efficiently and on time.
“We have an extremely smart engineering base. They’ve shown [this] over and over again, not only in designing the planes, but also in building the planes within budget, within time and within specification, and then certifying them with the authorities as planned. For example, the E2 family was certified on the same day by the Brazilian authority, by the US authority and by the European authority.”
Meijer was clear about this particular point:
“So, the capability that Embraer has to develop new aircraft within that segment and to continuously be ahead of the market in terms of efficiency, I think that’s the ’special sauce’ that Embraer has, and we’ve been shown time and time again how good we are at that. The E195 E2, for me, is the pinnacle of all that. That’s an aircraft which is much smaller than anything else and it’s the most efficient aircraft with the best relation between cost per trip and cost per seat that an airline can have.”
Embraer’s rather unique way of structuring its engineering teams is another source of competitive advantage, Meijer said.
“We don’t have engineers that just work for commercial aviation,” he stated. “We have an engineering organization that stretches across the different business units, so the same engineers that work today on a commercial, might tomorrow be working on defense or on executive jets.”
Here, Meijer provided a specific example of technological spillovers across Embraer’s different functional areas.
“For example, when we did our first E-jets, we did a fly-by-wire system. Then, when we did the KC 390, we developed another fly-by-wire system, which was improved from the E1 [the aforementioned generation of E-Jets, including the E170/175/190/195 – ed. note]. We then, with the experience of the other two, applied an improved version of that system on the executive jets. That was version number three. Then version number four was used on the E2 [Embraer’s current E-Jet version – ed. note. That’s why we call it our fourth -generation fly-by-wire system, because we went through three different families before. And now, we’re able to improve it yet another time. And I think that’s a strength that illustrates what the common engineering power in Embraer can offer.”
Looking ahead: what’s next for Embraer?
In 2021 Embraer announced it was working on a rather futuristic, clean-sheet sustainable aircraft program called “Energia”, which would be a family of turboprop aircraft with a significantly lower environmental footprint.
What’s the status of the Energia program? “For us Energia is really a family of concepts,” Meijer said “The reason we have started work on the Energia program is because we want to talk to suppliers, partners, and operators. That’s exactly what we’re doing. It is still very early on because we need to understand what the customers need and where technology is leading us.”
“It’s not a launched product yet,” he added. “It’s a concept for us to talk to the market and understand what’s going to happen in the segment up to 50 to 70-seat aircraft.”
So, what’s next for Embraer Commercial Aviation?
“The E2 came to markets now six years ago so it’s a very young aircraft,” Meijer said. “We have a group of people in product marketing, which look forward into the future. They look at all the options. They dream about the future. But 99.9% of my organization today is focused on the E2 and the rest of the organization is focused on the KC390 and the Praetor and Phenom [Embraer’s flagship products in defense and executive aviation, respectively – ed. note].”
“I believe the products we have developed over the last 10 years are so good that we’re very fit for the future,” Meijer confidently concluded.
