Embraer Opens Global Customer Center in Florida
Embraer Executive Jets opened its Global Customer Center at the Melbourne (Fla.) International Airport yesterday
The first U.S.-assembled Phenom 100 light jet was delivered yesterday to Kansas City, Mo.-based fractional provider Executive AirShare at Embraer’s newly opened executive jet delivery center and Phenom final assembly plant in Melbourne, Fla. Celebrating the handover of the milestone airplane were (l-r) Executive AirShare chairman and CEO Bob Taylor, Embraer Executive Jets president Ernest Edwards and Executive AirShare president and COO Keith Plumb. (Photo: Chad Trautvetter)

Embraer Executive Jets opened its Global Customer Center at the Melbourne (Fla.) International Airport yesterday and simultaneously delivered the first U.S.-assembled Phenom 100 to Kansas City, Mo.-based Executive AirShare. With this delivery, the fractional provider now has 18 Phenoms (thirteen 100s and five 300s). The new 58,000-sq-ft customer center completes the second–and, for now, final–construction phase at Embraer’s Melbourne location; the adjacent Phenom final assembly plant opened in February. At the new facility, Embraer Executive Jets customers from around the world will come to select colors, fabrics, paint schemes and options for all of the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer’s Phenom, Legacy and Lineage business jets. The facility also serves as a delivery center for all U.S.-assembled Phenom 100s and, starting in the second half of next year, U.S.-assembled Phenom 300s. Only a handful of Phenom 100s will be delivered this year in Melbourne, but this will ramp up to 30 Phenom 100s and 300s next year and 60 of the two light jet models in 2013. Total annual Phenom production capacity at Melbourne is 96 aircraft. Embraer president and CEO Frederico Curado told AIN that there is room for expansion at Melbourne, leaving open the possibility that more Embraer business jets beyond the Phenoms could eventually be assembled in the U.S.