The Exemplary Rise of Embraer, the World's Third Largest Commercial Aircraft Manufacturer

Brazil is known worldwide for its football, Rio Carnival, Samba, Latin music, the Amazon River and Rainforest, and beautiful nature. This largest and most populous country of South America is not well known for its technology and technology-based industry. A technological product, a strong technological brand is not well known. However, in recent years, when it comes to aircraft design and construction, a Brazilian company, Embraer, the pride of Brazil, is among the giants of the world.
Founded in 1969, Embraer is a Brazilian aeronautical conglomerate that manufactures aircraft and provides aviation services for commercial, military, administrative and agricultural production purposes, and is the world's third largest civil aircraft manufacturer after Boeing and Airbus.
Embraer is a true aviation legend, having manufactured over 8000 commercial aircraft to date.

Embraer's Rise Process and What are the Contributors to this Rise?

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of the products offered by Embraer were military aircraft. In these years, Embraer was mainly producing Embraer AT-26 Xavante and Embraer EMB 312 Tucano aircraft to meet the needs of the Brazilian Air Force. It started civil aircraft production with the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, a regional passenger aircraft, and launched this design in 1985. This aircraft, which also aimed for export success, was the first member of the series of small and regional aircraft that would later become very successful. Embraer also succeeded in producing more than 2500 of the US-Piper commercial aircraft, which it started to produce under licence in these years, until the 2000s.

Embraer was fully privatised in 1994 and became the world's third largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in 2017.

Embraer, an SOE born out of Brazilian state initiatives and managed by the state from the beginning, entered the privatisation process in 1992, and privatisation was completed in 1994. The Brazilian government retained its influence on internal policies by holding a golden share, which allowed veto power.

As a result of its privatisation, Embraer decided to expand abroad and implemented this decision with high discipline.

Privatisation and subsequent expansion abroad had a doping effect on Embraer, which in 2017 held 58 percent of the world market share in commercial jets for the regional aviation market, making it the third largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world. However, Brazilian Embraer now has its sights set even higher.

Only five of the world's aircraft designers and manufacturers are engaged in large-scale production, namely Airbus (Europe), Boeing (USA), Embraer (Brazil), Bombardier (Canada), and Tupolev (Russia).

Embraer emerged in a "developing country" with no tradition in the aerospace sector and has become a strong competitor in the global market for small and medium-sized aircraft. In order to understand Embraer's development; its determination to become a multinational and what it has achieved thanks to this determination should be known and taken as an example. It should not be forgotten that before privatisation, Embraer was a company that was close to bankruptcy.

Yes, it is possible to say that Embraer started its glorious growth journey by targeting the world market. Likewise, it is also possible to say that Embraer's focus on administrative, military, small and medium aircraft aviation in order to revitalise regional markets is ambitious and exciting.

One of the factors contributing to Embraer's growth and success in becoming a multinational is its partnership with research and educational institutions. It has created lasting co-operation with Brazil's best engineer and technician training schools. As a result of these collaborations, Embraer has been able to provide the best human quality at a low price

Partnerships with foreign companies have also contributed greatly to Embraer's growth and becoming an international player. For example, the joint projects with the Italian Aermacchi (Leonardo) have been long-term and remarkable. This co-operation resulted in the design and manufacture of the AMX International AMX light attack aircraft.

Emraer has also had long-term and well-established commercial co-operation with the US companies Piper, Northrop and Boeing.

The Boeing-Embraer joint venture did not materialise at the last moment.

In 2018, Boeing announced that it would acquire 80% of the Boeing Embraer commercial aviation division in a joint venture. This was thought to be a move against Airbus' acquisition of a majority stake in rival Bombardier CSeries in 2017. However, this initiative did not materialise due to Boeing's serious economic crisis with the 737Max.

These collaborations have contributed greatly to Embraer's access to new technologies and to the availability of a qualified, knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce, resulting from the arrival of foreign technicians in Brazil and/or Embraer technicians working in factories in Italy or the United States.

Other international partnerships, such as Gamesa (Spain), Sonaca (Belgium), Enaer (Chile), OGMA (Portugal) and C&I Interiors (USA), were important in providing parts for various products, which reduced R&D costs and streamlined production processes.

Regarding the process of becoming a multinational company, Embraer followed the traditional main steps. It began to export sporadically to neighbouring and culturally similar countries, such as Uruguay and Chile, where its first products were sold six years after its foundation. Later, as exports gained a foothold in these markets, it sent sales representatives to the USA and Europe. When these representatives could no longer meet the demands for after-sales service, the company set up its own commercial subsidiaries and customer services. Finally, the company established industrial plants in the United States, Europe and China.

Embraer ranks third in the world in the production of commercial aircraft, but ninth in the world in total aircraft production capacity, civil and military. In recent years, Embraer also wants to accelerate its development in military aviation, especially with the C-390.

Embraer, which started its activities as a public company in Brazil and continued its activities with this structure for 25 years, has started to rise globally with its private and multinational structure in the last 30 years and continues this rise with acceleration.