Embraer delivered 32 commercial airplanes during the first quarter this year, the company announced today. Compared with the first quarter of 2008, when the company delivered 35 E Jets and three ERJ 145s, production rates declined 16 percent. Plans call for production rates to drop more precipitously through the rest of the year, resulting in a near 30-percent decline in airliner deliveries by year-end, from 162 to 115. On March 31, the company’s firm order backlog totaled $19.7 billion. During last year’s fourth quarter, the value of Embraer’s backlog shrunk to $20.9 billion from $21.6 billion at the end of the third quarter.

Embraer did not register a single firm order for airliners during the quarter, lowering its unit backlog in the commercial segment to 393. At the end of the fourth quarter its commercial aircraft backlog stood at 426, suggesting an order cancellation involving one airliner during the three-month period ending March 31.