United Airlines revises fleet plan

April 23, 2015: United Airlines announced its 1Q2015 earnings today (which will eventually be posted with commentary on SkyWriterAviation.aero). What caught our eye in the press release was the following. United will: Complete the removal of more than… Read More

Bombardier sees solid future for CRJ

March 20, 2015: C. Leeham Co. Bombardier’s current challenges don’t end with the CSeries. The company has seen its once-dominate positions in the regional jet and turbo prop markets decline precipitously. The CRJ struggles in its sales against… Read More

ISTAT: Bombardier vs Embraer: unsurprisingly, differing views

March 9, 2015: Ross Mitchell, vice president of business development, Bombardier, and John Slattery, chief commercial officer for Embraer, squared off today at the ISTAT conference. Below is a paraphrased summary of their panel discussion.

Order cycle may have peaked for mainline single-aisles, but smaller jet cycle booming

Feb 24, 2015: The mainline jet orders get the headlines, and the focus on the order cycle, but the smaller jets have yet to see their order cycle peak. Goldman Sachs downgraded Boeing to a Sell this week,… Read More

2015 a year of execution for Embraer commercial

Subscription Required Introduction Jan. 7, 2015: Embraer, the world’s #3 commercial airplane manufacturer, enters 2015 viewing this as a year of execution, says its chief commercial officer, John S. Slattery. There are three pillars: Continuing to fill out… Read More

Interview: CSeries program update with Bombardier’s program chief Dewar

Subscription required. Now open to all Readers. By Bjorn Fehrm and Scott Hamilton Introduction Nov. 24, 2014: Bombardier CSeries flight testing has now passed 500 flight hours, and with the addition of Flight Test Vehicle 5 to the… Read More

A320 v 737: the sales winner is….

It’s one of the bitterest rivalries in the industrialized world: Airbus vs Boeing. Despite being world-class companies, executives at each often snipe at each other’s airplanes, claiming superiority in economics and passenger appeal. Like lawyers arguing a court… Read More

E-Jet, the project that shaped Embraer

By Bjorn Fehrm Introduction In a recent visit to Embraer in Brazil we got a thorough brief on the background and decision making around the E-Jet and E-Jet E2 programs. We have written about these programs before but… Read More

Mitsubishi rolls out MRJ90

Mitsubishi rolled out its MRJ90 regional jet, the first passenger airliner to be produced in Japan since the YS-11 turbo-prop in 1962. The MRJ90 challenges the Embraer E-175/190 and E2 and the Bombardier CRJ900. The smaller MRJ70 won’t… Read More

“We need more than one family,” says Embraer COO

Subscription required. Now open to all Readers. (Nov. 29, 2014) Introduction Oct. 15, 2014: Embraer had the opportunity to design a clean-sheet airplane as a successor to the E-Jet to respond to the Bombardier CSeries, with the 100-110… Read More