Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Brazil’s Embraer expects to reduce production of its E-Jet line of airliners by between 15- and 20 percent this year as it prepares to manage a backlog that saw its first decline in two and a half years during last year’s fourth quarter. Embraer airline market executive vice president Mauro Kern told AIN this week that a planned ramp-up of Phenom business jet production would offset much of the slowdown on the commercial side, however, and that the company expected to move some employees now working on E-Jet production to the business jet line. “We are working very hard to minimize the effect of this crisis on our manpower,” he said in response to a question about possible layoffs this year. “We see nothing significant at this point, but we’ll have to see how things develop over the year.” 
Meanwhile, Embraer will almost certainly see a further contraction of its overall backlog this year, added Kern. During last year’s fourth quarter the value of Embraer’s backlog shrunk to $20.9 billion from $21.6 billion at the end of the third quarter. Last year the company set a new delivery record for itself by shipping 204 jets, 35 more than it delivered in 2007. Of those, E-Jet airliners accounted for 157, including a single executive-configured Embraer 175. A 15- to 20-percent production drop would amount to between 126 and 133 E-Jets delivered in 2009. At the end of the year its firm order backlog for the four E-Jet variants totaled 386.

Embraer E-Jet Production To Drop by 15- to 20 Percent

Brazil’s Embraer expects to reduce production of its E-Jet line of airliners by between 15- and 20 percent this year as it prepares to manage a backlog tha

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