India’s potential is amazing, need holistic perspective: Embraer

India’s potential is amazing and there is a need to work with a holistic perspective, Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO Arjan Meijer has said as the Brazilian aerospace major pursues opportunities in the civilian and defence aircraft segments.

Embraer is betting big on India and in January this year, announced a strategic collaboration with the Adani Group that aims to set up a regional aircraft manufacturing facility in India. Besides, the company is pitching its KC-390 Millennium aircraft for the Indian Air Force’s Medium Transport Aircraft (MTA) programme.  In a brief interaction with PTI at Embraer’s headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Meijer said the company is focused not only on commercial but also on the defence areas in India.    

“India is the biggest market around the world, with well over a billion people, with a travel propensity which is very low.

So we think that the potential of India is just amazing... we also know that to get into India, we need to work from a holistic perspective,” he said.

Embraer, which opened its new office in New Delhi in October 2025, is looking to strengthen its presence in the country’s commercial aviation, defence, business aviation, services and support, and urban air mobility segments.

Currently, Embraer, whose E-Jets began operations in India in 2005, has nearly 50 aircraft in the country serving the Indian Air Force, government agencies, business jet operators and commercial airline Star Air.

According to Meijer, the company sees a big market for defence in India with the KC-390 aircraft.

“Secondly, we are seeing 500 aircraft potentially in the next 10 years that we could bring to India for the market, right? So if you look at our production levels, that’s a very big number,” he said during the interaction earlier this week.

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing domestic civil aviation markets.

“We are willing to bring production to India, final assembly, with the right partner, if we get the right orders. And there’s some work that needs to be done. I think the prospects in India is huge,” Meijer said.

On whether Embraer has been bit late in tapping the Indian market, he said he does not think so and added that India needed to focus first on getting aviation to the point where it is today.“I think there is now a natural momentum to focus on connecting India deeper into the smaller cities. The E195-E2 jet, we believe is also a great aircraft for India,” he said.

Regarding the progress in terms of site selection for the planned facility as part of the collaboration with the Adani Group, and orders for new aircraft in India, Meijer said teams are working.

“It is we need to get the commitments from the airlines because there’s no need to set up a line if there are no airline orders in parallel...,” he said and also mentioned that India is a complex market from a revenue perspective.

The regional air connectivity scheme UDAN is being extended and the company is waiting for more details on it and there are also discussions around Make In India initiatives. “It is all progressing,” he noted.

On March 25, 2026, the Indian government approved the launch and implementation of the modified UDAN for a ten-year period from FY 2026-27 to FY 2035-36, with a total outlay of Rs 28,840 crore.

In 2026, Embraer aims to deliver up to 85 commercial aircraft and according to the company, its E2 jets are the most reliable small narrow-body aircraft.