By Murdo Morrison 20 September 2024
Embraer’s $150 million divorce settlement from Boeing – announced on 16 September after more than four years of legal wrangling – marks the end of one the most remarkable betrothals in recent aerospace history.
Back in early 2020, as reports circulated of a mysterious infectious coronavirus spreading through Asia, executives at the Brazilian company’s headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos were putting the finishing touches to a complex internal restructuring that would carve out the commercial aviation business from the rest of the company.
Source: BillyPix
Meijer insists Embraer Commercial Aviation is a ‘stronger’ business than it was when Boeing was set to take it over
Once complete, the plan was for that entity to fold into Boeing, leaving just two Western manufacturers of jet airliners. Embraer’s erstwhile rival Bombardier was in the process of divesting the remainder of its commercial aviation interests, having transferred its flagship CSeries narrowbody programme to Airbus where it became the A220.
Embraer’s executive jets and defence units would remain within the legacy company, the Brazilian government having been reluctant to allow the latter – responsible for the Super Tucano and C-390 military aircraft as well as some sensitive technologies – to fall into foreign hands.