Embraer’s Praetor 600 super-midsize jet has received type certification from Transport Canada, expanding its presence in the North American market, the company announced Friday. The approval came on the same day the Brazilian manufacturer reported a 35 percent drop in deliveries overall in 2020 with 130 executive jets and airliners going to customers last year.

Announced in October 2018, the follow-on to the Legacy 500 was first approved in Brazil in April 2019 and then in the U.S. and Europe a month later. Capable of flying 4,000 nautical miles at long-range cruise or more than 3,700 nautical miles at Mach .8, the full fly-by-wire Praetor 600 can connect distances from Toronto to London, Montreal to Paris, or Calgary to Honolulu.

“The certification by Transport Canada Civil Aviation reinforces the great momentum of the Praetor 600 in the global market,” said Embraer Executive Jets president and CEO Michael Amalfitano. “Canada is an important market for Embraer, and we are excited to continue to serve this market with our industry-leading products.”

The Brazilian airframer began delivery of the Praetor 600 in June 2019 and delivered the first to fleet launch customer Flexjet in late 2020.

The delivery numbers announced on February 12, showed the relative strength of business aviation over commercial during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 86 of the 2020 deliveries being executive jets.  This was a decline from 109 in 2019. Commercial shipments, meanwhile, were less than half, from 89 in 2019 to 44 last year.

Of the executive jet deliveries, 56 comprised light jets (50 Phenom 300s and six Phenom 100s). This was down from the 62 handed over a year earlier.  Large executive jet deliveries totaled 30 last year, a steeper slide from the 47 delivered in 2019.

The Praetor 600 led the large-jet deliveries at 18 handed over in 2020, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter. In fact, two-thirds of Embraer’s large-jet deliveries occurred in the fourth quarter while 41 percent of the 2020 Phenom deliveries occurred in the fourth quarter.

Embraer did not deliver any Legacy 450s in 2020 (it had shipped 15 in 2019). However, the Brazilian manufacturer handed over 10 of the follow-on Praetor 500. Meanwhile, there was one Legacy 500 shipment in 2020, and that came in the fourth quarter. Embraer also delivered a single Legacy 650 on the year, down from five a year earlier.