TATV Insight: With Hussein Dabbas - Embraer

In this INSIGHT interview with Alan Peaford, Dabbas looks at the changing face of the air transport markets across Africa and the Middle East, and explains why now is the right time for Embraer’s narrow-body family to help kick-start the new post-Covid route development.

“Airlines are realising that they need to right size.They need to be at the right market with the right aircraft not every airline can have and operate very high seat factors whether the wide body is the jumbo jets or the even the single aisle that are becoming bigger and bigger. So right sizing, as we call it, is what we believe is the future and we've been promoting this in Africa, we've been promoting this in the Middle East. In Africa 97% of flights leave with less than 150 passengers, which means if you're operating any kind of a wide body or even a single aisle, you're leaving a lot of empty seats on that flight. And, and again, because you're operating some of those big aeroplanes you are not able to operate daily or multi daily flights.”

Dabbas was challenged on the classic E-jet performance in hot and harsh conditions and explained how the E2 Profit Hunter with its Whitney PW1000G geared turbofan engines, new wing, new landing gear and new cabin designs with staggered business class seats is wowing airlines who have seen it.

The interview covers airline strategy and why governments – particularly in Africa – need to look at their approach to aviation, and changing passenger demands.