Embraer signs $1.4 billion business jet deal with Flexjet

Fractional jet ownership firm becomes the Praetor fleet launch customer.

Michael Amalfitano (left), CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, and Michael Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet, celebrate $1.4 billion deal.
Michael Amalfitano (left), CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, and Michael Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet, celebrate $1.4 billion deal.
Embraer

Embraer officials announced a purchase agreement with fractional jet ownership and leasing company Flexjet. The deal comprises a fleet of Embraer business jets, which includes the recently certified Praetor jets and the Phenom 300. The announcement was made during the 2019 National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Valued at up to $1.4 billion at current list prices, this deal was included in the Q2 2019 backlog, with deliveries starting Q4 2019. With this purchase agreement, Flexjet becomes Embraer’s Praetor Fleet Launch Customer.

“We are very grateful for Flexjet’s renewed commitment to Embraer through this new agreement, which reflects the growth and the strength of our partnership over the past 16 years and symbolizes our ongoing support for their journey ahead,” said Michael Amalfitano, President and CEO, Embraer Executive Jets.

The partnership between Embraer and Flexjet dates to 2003, when Flight Options, which merged with Flexjet in 2015, became the first fractional ownership program to introduce the Legacy Executive jet into its fleet. Offering customers a large cabin experience at super-midsize economics allowed Flight Options to serve more customers better while also supporting the company’s growth via Embraer’s high-utilization aircraft.

“We are proud to introduce the Praetor jets to the fractional marketplace and make technologically advanced midsize and super-midsize aircraft available to Flexjet Owners,” said Michael Silvestro, Flexjet CEO.

Flight Options introduced the Phenom 300 into its fractional program in 2010, receiving Embraer’s 100th milestone Phenom 300 in 2012, the first year in which the aircraft became the best-selling light jet. For the seventh consecutive year, the Phenom 300 has been the most delivered light business jet, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). According to GAMA data, the Phenom 300 was the only business jet to reach 500 deliveries in the last decade.

Flexjet became the first fractional provider to offer the Legacy 500, in September 2015 and took delivery of Embraer’s 1,000th executive jet, a Legacy 500, in April 2016. The Legacy 450 joined the Legacy 500 in Flexjet’s Red Label fleet in August 2016, and both models became the first fly-by-wire Flexjet aircraft, offering performance and capabilities of larger aircraft with midsize economics.

The Praetor 500 and the Praetor 600, both received FAA, EASA, and ANAC certifications less than one year after they were first announced at NBAA-BACE 2018.

Flexjet first entered the fractional jet ownership market in 1995, and fields some of the youngest business aircraft in the fractional jet industry, with an average age of approximately six years.