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NEW YORK, N.Y. – Nearly a decade after Delta Air Lines was instrumental in keeping Bombardier’s C Series project alive, the airline’s chief executive, Ed Bastian, is cool to the idea of Embraer — or anyone — developing a new commercial aircraft for the airline and the broader industry. Speaking at a press conference a day prior to Delta’s Investor Day, Bastian told The Air Current that reducing complexity, not increasing choice, was its primary goal.
“It’s hard to create a new rung, if you will, on the OEM space,” said Bastian. “As much as we say we only have two choices between Boeing and Airbus, the cost of entering a third competitor is enormous. And by the way, the cost on the airline back in terms of adding another rung, another set of complexities, whether it’s for training purposes or for pilots, whether it’s for engines, whatever it is, it’s going to create another complexity that I’m not sure the airlines themselves will run after.”
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Bastian confirmed that Delta has had conversations on the subject with Embraer, which he said has been “just trying to get a pulse” by talking to industry stakeholders. But he noted that any new commercial offering from Embraer would be arriving “maybe tail-end of next decade. So as a practical matter it’s not something we could action.”
Embraer has not provided a notional timeline for a new airplane project other than to say it is considering its options for a product that would arrive “after 2030”, according to Embraer’s chief executive.
Much of the viability of a new large commercial aircraft to compete directly with Boeing and Airbus will be dictated by timing, say industry officials who are closely watching Embraer’s deliberations and have pointed to an entry into service in the first half of the next decade, rather than the latter half. A 2033 arrival, for example, would give the Brazilian plane maker a half-decade head start and an opportunity to fortify the market while Airbus and Boeing work on their own new single-aisle designs and wait for next-generation propulsion.
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