Yeah...half (or less) the price tag, though possessing half (or less) the range and 2/3 the performance.:eek:

I'm told Embrear is building a new factory in China to produce ERJs. I was told this and haven't looked it up so take it with a grain of salt.

As far as what will happen goes I don't see RJs being that good of a deal for people to actually want them. Pretty much all the side markets have been filled. There are aircraft that go higher, faster, further, and do so more efficiently than the RJs. True they don't fit as many people but if that's your market then they'd have BBJs. Has any fractional, which caters to the markets some of you are talking about, ever tried to place orders for CRJs? If the CRJ had that much of a future they would have been marketed already. Netjets would have a few at least. I could see a few places like USA JET or someone like them grabbing a couple but not in the personal market.

First Hainan ERJ is Embraer's 1000th

Aviation International News offers FREE subscriptions to industry insiders...that includes regional airline pilots.

I just heard it in passing. I never really cared enough to find out if they were actually making more RJs or not. I just fly the things I don't have to like them. The link that you posted doesn't want to work. I don't like subscriptions they lead to too much junk mail.

A Challenger 850 doesn't really compete with the Gulfstream 450/550, Falcon 2000EX/900EX, or even the Global Express; it simply doesn't have the range. In fact, the Challenger 850 holds less fuel than a Challenger 604 does! They are all different airplanes, largely for different missions...not to mention those aircraft would cost at least double the price of a nicely equipped converted CRJ. Look no farther than the success of the Embraer Legacy...

Do you have any earthly idea what the acquisition and direct operating cost of a BBJ would be, especially compared to an 850 or Legacy?

You can buy a Challenger 850 directly from Bombardier, or from any number of companies doing conversions of these aircraft. The Limited has a couple CRJ-200s they use as a corporate shuttle, Penske Racing has a 200 (or was it a 700?) they use as a shuttle, Indy Racing League has 700 they use as well.

There is a market for a corporate CRJ, and it is just now starting to blossom.

Keep in mind Ghilis flies 747s that land in a fat crab. As I was saying there might be a couple out there but overall I don't see a market for them unless they are basically giving them away. Time will tell.

I"m with boiler on this one, I think there is a HUGE market for the CRJ/ERJ converstions in the furture. It just makes sense. You can have a plane with about, what, double the size, with aux tanks, almost the same range for half the price of a new G550 or Global Express. Umm, sounds pretty decent to me. I will bet you will see a large number of these birds converted in the near future. As far as cargo, who knows what those guys will want. And if some one could explain how fedex used gas hogs Faclons for that long, maybe the CRJ makes sense. I'm being serious on that last one.

Even with the large aux tank a Challenger 850/CRJ2 won't be anywhere close to touching the range of a Global Express or G450/550. Those planes have 12+ hours of endurance in the mid to upper-40s.

Doing BED-VNY or LGW-TEB in the winter, however, should be within the 850s range and ability...especially if you climb it above 370 (which should be no problem on a 4+ hour segment).

Right that's what I mean, it's not going to be doing tokyo to nyc, but transcon, sure why not? That'd work out great.