A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

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Curt Epstein

“2025 was a remarkable period for our company,” said Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto, kicking off the Brazilian airframer’s 2025 fourth-quarter and year-end earnings call this morning. “We met our delivery guidance on the operational side, while we outperformed expectations on the financial side.”
In the fourth quarter, the São José dos Campos-based company—which is active in the commercial, executive, and military aviation arenas—had $2.65 billion in revenues and, for the year, more than $7.57 billion, making 2025 its most profitable year ever, up 18% over 2024 and above the high end of its previously stated guidance.
Embraer Executive Jets delivered 53 aircraft in the last quarter of the year—its highest output ever for a single quarter, and a 20% increase over its fourth-quarter 2024 total—split between 28 of its light Phenoms, and 25 of its larger Praetors. Fourth-quarter revenues for the division—which accounts for approximately 30% of company revenue—totaled $750 million.
It finished the year with 155 business jets handed over, a 19% increase over its 2024 performance and the high end of its stated guidance. The year-end mix included 86 Phenoms (its Phenom 300 is now the world’s best-selling light jet for the 14th straight year), and 69 mid-and super-midsize Praetors.
The division recorded total sales of $2.3 billion for the year, with a backlog of $7.6 billion, and maintained a 1.1-to-1 book-to-bill ratio, which increased by 3% in the fourth quarter.
“Executive Aviation’s stronger continuing demand, supported by higher delivery volumes, reflected the strength of our portfolio, which was further reinforced by the recent announcement of the next generation of the Praetor 500E and 600E,” said Neto.
For this year, the OEM forecasts business jet deliveries in the range of 160 to 170, a 6% increase over 2025, based on the midpoint of that range. When asked about a possible production target of 200 private jets, Neto admitted there are still some production bottlenecks the company is working through. “We have been doing that already for a couple of years, while we work on improving efficiency in our production lines,” he said. “So now we produce one Phenom or one Praetor in half the time that we used to back in 2021.” He added that the company has orders to support that production, and is working fast to reach that target.
The company also addressed the issue of the trade tariffs imposed early last year by the White House, which were recently struck down by the Supreme Court. “As we highlighted in our last earnings call, we expected a relevant impact from U.S. import tariffs in Q4,” said Embraer CFO Antonio Carlos Garcia. “The huge impact of tariffs was on executive aviation, and we delivered the same number we delivered last year, percentage-wise, which means it doesn’t matter if you have a tariff.” According to Embraer, it paid $80 million in tariffs (which were later ruled unlawful) from the time they were enacted in April; 85% of that was attributed to its executive jet division.
While a U.S. Federal Court this week ruled that companies that paid the tariffs were entitled to a refund from the U.S. government, Embraer is still not certain about what will happen. “In terms of recovering the money paid in tariffs, we are monitoring the situation, trying to understand what our peers will do, and what kind of outcome they will get from there,” said Garcia.

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