The Aviation Week team does a regular series of editorial roundtables with the industry's movers and shakers. Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado was our guest April 9, and he covered myriad topics, including competition on the commercial and business jet segments and future aircraft development.
My colleage Joe Anselmo did a story in the April 11 issue (subscribers only) of Aviation Daily where he observed how times have changed in the government subsidies fight over aircraft development. He noted that when Embraer took on regional jet powerhouse Bombardier in the 1990s, it was swatted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for receiving unfair subsidies from the Brazilian government.
But now that Embraer is the market leader, the Brazilian company is warning that similar behavior won’t be tolerated from an emerging competitor, Japan’s Mitsubishi. Curado says his company will ask the Brazilian government to closely monitor the Mitsubishi program to make sure the Japanese government funding does not violate WTO rules.
“If they want to bring a product [to market], bring it on its own merits,” Curado said in his interview with AVIATION WEEK editors. “They have to comply with the WTO framework.”
You can click here to listen to my 3:17-minute podcast where Curado discusses prospects for the 50-seat regional jet market.