Austria's armed forces are looking forward to their new transport aircraft: four Embraer C-390s will replace the outdated Hercules fleet. The C-130Ks still have a while to go, but Austria's first C-390 is already under construction in Brazil.
Several million liters of Danube water will still be flowing through Vienna before it becomes a fully-fledged aircraft, but Embraer has already given the go-ahead for the construction of the first C-390 for Austria at the Gavião Peixoto plant: In the presence of a delegation from the Alpine republic, the aircraft manufacturer from Brazil officially kicked off the structural assembly of the first new military transport aircraft for Austria at a small ceremony on February 14. The four versions of the aircraft will replace the old Lockheed C-130Ks of the Austrian Armed Forces by 2030 at the latest.
Together with the Netherlands, Austria confirmed its order for the Embraer C-390 in July 2024. Both countries are replacing their Hercules transporters with the new aircraft. While the Dutch ordered five C-390s, Austria signed for four, which will be stationed at the air transport squadron at Linz Airport in future. The delivery of the Brazilian twin-engine aircraft is planned from 2028, and the start of structural assembly is now on schedule.
C-390 "sets new standards"
For Bosco da Costa Junior, head of the Embraer armaments division, the start of construction of the first Austrian C-390 logically marked an important milestone. "We are thrilled that we can start production of the first aircraft for Austria and we look forward to delivering the first aircraft to the Austrian Air Force soon," explained the manager on the sidelines of the ceremony at the Embraer factory airfield in Gavião Peixoto - and did not fail to drum up publicity for "his" aircraft once again. As a medium-sized multi-role aircraft for air transport, the C-390 "sets new standards", said da Costa Junior: "It offers an unbeatable combination of state-of-the-art technology, reliability and low operating costs with unsurpassed performance."
Successful in the export business
Embraer has so far received orders for the C-390 from a total of nine countries. The largest and most important customer is the Brazilian military - despite the reduction of the order from the original 28 to just 19 aircraft for budget reasons. In addition to Austria and the Netherlands, Portugal (five aircraft), Hungary (two), the Czech Republic (two), Sweden (four), Slovakia (three) and South Korea (three) have also ordered the C-390. There is also an order from an as yet undisclosed customer, presumably Uzbekistan, for a further two jets. Other interested parties include South Africa, Greece, India and Colombia.
