Embraer’s C-390 Millenium turbofan-powered airlifter will make its first visit to the Singapore Airshow next week.
The aircraft will be on view in the static display at the show as part of a regional demonstration tour on the wave of recent sales success.
While Embraer remains tight lipped about the countries the C-390 will be visiting during the tour, the company has recently won a significant competition run by South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA) to select a medium airlifter.
“We are super happy with this victory. It was a long and very robust procurement process that was conducted by DAPA,” explained Frederico Lemos, Embraer’s Chief Commercial Officer Defense and Security.
“We believe that South Korea has made the right choice and indeed the C-390 is the best aircraft for the range of missions they were looking for. It will well complement the capability of South Korea, with its flexibility, efficiency, availability and lifecycle cost savings that they will see.”
Embraer has now delivered six C-390s to the Brazilian Air Force, which has already declared full operational capability with the aircraft and, according to Lemos, is seeing availability levels in excess of 80 per cent and a mission performance rate of 99.7 per cent. The manufacturer has also delivered the first aircraft to Portugal and this month the first aircraft for the Hungarian Air Force made its maiden flight in Brazil.
So far, the C-390 has been selected by Austria (four aircraft), Brazil (19), the Czech Republic (two), Hungary (two), the Netherlands (five), Portugal (five) and South Korea (undisclosed).
Most recently, the Brazilian manufacturer has signed an agreement with Mahindra Aerospace to offer the C-390 for the Indian Air Force’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) project.
Embraer is currently building 12 aircraft a year and Lemos said the facility at Gavião Peixoto in Brazil is capable of ramping up to 18 C-390s per year to meet expected demand.
“We believe the recent victory in South Korea opens up a lot of opportunity for the C-390 in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
“The presence at the Singapore Airshow and the demonstration tour that we’ll do around the region will I hope speed up some of the discussions we’re already having.”
ADM will be on the ground in Singapore to report the pertinent news as it happens.