Copa Airlines Buys New Aircraft from Brazil’s Embraer

Copa Airlines, the Panamanian carrier, announced the purchase of ten 90-seat E-Jets airplanes for $300 million from Brazilian company Embraer.

The first two jetliners will get to Panama by the end of 2005, while the remaining eight planes will start trickling in from late 2005 through 2008.

“Our company has grown somewhere between 12 and 14 percent over the past three years, so this project couldn’t brook any further delay, even amid an aviation crisis worldwide like this,” said Embraer President and CEO Pedro Heilbron.

The aviation industry has been in a financial jam since after the 9/11 terror attacks in the U.S., a plight that has gotten even cloudier in recent months in the face of new record highs in oil prices.

The new aircraft will allow Copa to slash some flights between Panama and Central American, Caribbean and South American nations.

The air carrier’s long-term project includes the purchase of thirty similar jetliners for $900 million.

Copa is currently flying to 31 destinations in 20 countries in alliance with U.S. Continental Airlines.