President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited this Friday (26) the hangar of the Embraer factory, in São José dos Campos, in the interior of São Paulo, where he witnessed the delivery of a commercial jet model 195-E2, produced by the company , for Azul Linhas Aéreas. The agenda also included a visit to the facilities of the Aeronautical Technological Institute (ITA), the country’s main aerospace training center, in the same city.
“We are investing around R$2 billion this year, and generating more than 900 direct jobs in our factories in Brazil”, announced the company’s president, Francisco Gomes Neto.
Embraer is the third largest manufacturer of commercial jets in the world, leader in the segment of aircraft with up to 130 seats and executive jets. It has around 19 thousand employees, with a presence on all continents. Neto also highlighted that the company hired 1,500 new employees in just over a year, restoring the workforce it had before the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Lula highlighted Embraer’s successful trajectory. “I’m in a company that has always been a source of pride for this country,” he said. “You have to dream big. If Ozíres [Silva, fundador da Embraer] If we hadn’t been thinking big, we didn’t have Embraer. Without Brigadier Montenegro [fundador do ITA], we didn’t have the ITA. Great things are the result of a lot of courage, not cowardice. I want you to know that this moment for me is very historic,” he added.
Created by the Brazilian State in 1969, Embraer has already manufactured and sold more than 8 thousand aircraft, which transport around 145 million passengers per year around the world. Despite being privatized since 1994, the government has final power over the company’s strategic decisions. In addition to manufacturing commercial and private aircraft, the company manufactures military aircraft, such as the KC-390 freighter and the Super Tucano, as well as agricultural aircraft.
Regional aviation
During the event, the CEO of Azul Linhas Aéreas, John Rodgerson, announced the purchase of 13 new Embraer jets this year, which will add to the fleet of 60 national commercial planes, especially for use in regional aviation, where the company is leader. In total, investments total R$3 billion.
“When Azul was founded in 2008, 50 million passengers were transported by all companies in Brazil. This year alone, Azul will transport 35 million”, compared the businessman. The airline is Embraer’s main customer in Brazilian aviation, concentrating almost all purchases in the sector.
According to Azul, Embraer’s E2 has capacity for 136 passengers, and is the largest and most modern aircraft manufactured in Brazil. “The equipment is the most efficient single-aisle model currently on the market, offering savings of up to 25% in CO2 emissions. Azul currently operates 20 aircraft of the same model.
Expansion
The Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho, defended the need to expand the national aircraft manufacturing market to other airlines.
“Of 100% of US aviation, 50% is with Boeing planes [empresa norte-americana]. In France, of 100% of aviation, 41% are Airbus planes [empresa francesa]. And, in Brazil, of the 100% of Brazilian aviation, only 12% are Embraer planes”, he stated. According to him, in just over a year, Brazil has increased the number of passengers transported by 15% and predicts that, in the In the coming years, the country could reach 140 million passengers transported per year.
When commenting on the sector’s potential, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, spoke about the tax reform incentives for regional commercial aviation. “The tax reform provides a very strong stimulus for regional aviation. We have a continental country and we need to understand that Brazil needs more air services”, he commented.
Schedule
Before the event at the Embraer factory, Lula visited an ITA aerospace research and development laboratory and met with students from the institute, maintained by the Air Force, at the inauguration of a student accommodation with capacity for 80 students.
In the morning, in Nova Lima, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Lula participated in the inauguration of the Biomm company’s insulin factory. The unit will have production capacity to meet the national demand for the hormone in the country, used to treat diabetes. From São José dos Campos, Lula headed to the capital of São Paulo, where he spent the weekend. The forecast is that he will return to Brasília on Sunday.
