Embraer one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, based in Brazil is looking out for investment opportunities in Sri Lanka.The newly-appointed Vice President of Embraer Commercial Aviation for Asia Pacific, Cesar Pereira and Regional Sales Director Asia Pacific Fernando Mainardi was in Sri Lanka and met several government and private sector officials yesterday.

Cesar Pereira speaking to Daily News at the Brazilian Embassy in Colombo yesterday said that they are in to the manufacture of narrow bodied aircraft which is most suited for the fleet of SriLankan Airlines. “We feel that the way forward for SriLankan is to be a regional hub and attract transit traffic from the region and then feed them to long haul destinations with their larger aircraft. We feel as and when this model is put in to place passenger volumes to Sri Lanka could increase by over 66%. He also said that the present Colombo international airport is adequate to handle additional passengers.