Aircraft Displayed In 43 countries, On Six Continents

Brazilian planemaker Embraer tells ANN it recently wrapped up a 21-week record-breaking demonstration tour of the Embraer 190, the longest of any tour for one of the company's commercial jets.

After starting at the Farnborough Air Show, in London, U.K., in July 2006, the aircraft was on display at three air shows and visited prospective airlines in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, and Asia-Pacific.

The jet stopped in 43 countries and was shown to 105 airlines in 74 cities, covering nearly 135,000 nautical miles (250,000 km) and logging more than 300 flight hours.

Although the largest E-Jet normally has 100 seats in a standard single-class, 32-inch pitch configuration, the demo aircraft was especially outfitted with 93 seats in a two-class arrangement -- to "give visitors a better appreciation of the versatility of cabin layouts offered on all Embraer E-Jets," according to the planemaker. (Translation: "see how roomy our plane is, without those seven extra seats?" -- Ed.)

The airplane was also equipped with a multi-lingual audio and video-on-demand passenger entertainment system with individual TV screens at each seat.

"Our main objectives were to show the aircraft's configuration flexibility and its ability to fly a longer range in mainline comfort," said Luiz Sergio Chiessi, Embraer's Vice-President, Market Intelligence, Airline Market. "The tour allowed airlines to see, firsthand, that the Embraer 190 can provide the same standards of performance and cabin space normally found on larger aircraft, as an interesting tool for rightsizing low load factor narrow-body routes and to be applied in developing medium density markets."

FMI: www.embraer.com