Embraer one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, based in Brazil is looking out for investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.
The newly-appointed Vice President of Embraer Commercial Aviation for Asia Pacific, Cesar Pereira and Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific Fernando Mainardi was in Sri Lanka and met several government and private sector officials yesterday.
Cesar Pereira speaking to Daily News at the Brazilian Embassy in Colombo yesterday said that they are in to the manufacture of narrow bodied aircraft which is most suited for the fleet of SriLankan Airlines. “We feel that the way forward for SriLankan is to be a regional hub and attract transit traffic from the region and then feed them to long haul destinations with their larger aircraft. We feel as and when this model is put in to place passenger volumes to Sri Lanka could increase by over 66%. He also said that the present Colombo international airport is adequate to handle additional passengers.
I also feel that this operation should be also done similar to Singapore and Dubai with free stay-over, Free city tours and more additional duty free airport shops to make Colombo more attractive.”
He also said that they may also consider a MRO ((airline repair and maintenance centre) in Mattala if a proper business proposal is put on the table for them.
“We are also open for any other offer provided it would be of mutual benefit for all stakeholders.”
He said the company with over 48 year history is also in to agriculture aircraft and these aircraft could be used in Sri Lanka mainly to spray chemicals from air on agricultural fields.
Meanwhile Fernando Mainardi when asked if they made an offer to SriLankan airlines when the airline was buying 8 long haul aircraft he said that they did speak to the national carrier.
“However it was not fruitful since the airline at that time was concentration on bigger aircraft.
In the commercial aviation area, we are the third largest aircraft manufacturer (after Airbus and Boeing) and our E-Jets family of single aisle jet aircraft are operated by 65 airlines in 45 countries globally. We are in the commercial aviation, executive aviation and defense areas,” he added.
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