This Thursday (May 23), Boeing and Embraer announced the new name of their partnership. Embraer Commercial Aviation will become Boeing Brasil – Commercial.
The name change comes after Boeing agreed to pay $4.2 billion to buy 80% of Embraer’s operation making passenger jets with fewer than 150 seats.
Embraer will retain a 20% stake and the headquarters of this joint-venture will continue in São José dos Campos.
Although the name Embraer continues to exist, the brand will lose visibility as it will be restricted to the executive and defense aviation segments, which were not included in the agreement with the Boeing.
Boeing has not made a decision yet about whether to rebrand the small and mid-sized planes, which currently carry the Embraer name followed by a model code. There should be a similarity to the agreement between Airbus and Bombardier which resulted in the complete change of identity of the CSeries to the A220.
The deal with Boeing has been approved by shareholders but is still waiting on regulatory approval.
Embraer name holds special meaning in Brasil, evoking its founding in 1969 as a state-run company that grew into a national champion and was privatized in 1994. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil aircraft, after Boeing and Airbus and contains 18,500 workers worldwide.