Embraer has delivered the first Praetor 600E to Flexjet, and it’s arrived ahead of schedule. The handover, announced from Melbourne, Florida on 18 September, marks the start of deliveries under what was the largest firm order in Embraer Executive Jets’ history: 182 aircraft firm, with options on 30 more, from a February 2025 deal valued at up to US$7 billion. For anyone tracking where private jets are headed next, this is worth watching.
The order covers a mix of Phenom 300E, Praetor 500 and Praetor 600 family types, and Phenom 300E deliveries are already under way. Flexjet expects 12 Praetor 600Es by the end of 2026, with its first Praetor 500E due in the final quarter of the year too. There’s a catch worth noting, though: customers who ordered after Flexjet won’t see their own aircraft until late 2029 or 2030, which says a lot about how tightly booked Embraer’s production line already is.
Most of what’s changed sits in the cabin rather than the flight envelope. The Praetor 600E carries a 4,018 nautical mile range (7,441km) with four passengers aboard, which Embraer markets as the longest legs of any super-midsize jet, enough to link London and New York, or São Paulo and Miami, non-stop. It flies with a Collins Aerospace Pro Line Fusion flight deck, full fly-by-wire, and active turbulence reduction, a combination Embraer says no other manufacturer currently offers.
The headline feature, though, is the Smart Window: a 42-inch 4K OLED touchscreen fed by external cameras, streaming live views, video calls and a moving map from what Embraer calls a third cabin zone. Pair that with a Lufthansa Technik-designed cabin management system, embedded Starlink and reworked, rotating seating, and the aircraft reads less like a faster way to travel and more like a functioning office at 45,000 feet. Both the Praetor 600E and its Praetor 500E sibling picked up triple certification from ANAC, the FAA and EASA earlier this year, clearing the way for operators to register and fly them across the world’s most regulated markets without further approval.
For Australian travellers, the appeal is obvious: a jet with this kind of range comfortably covers the east coast to South East Asia, New Zealand or the Pacific in a single hop. But with new-order customers facing a multi-year wait, near-term access to this generation of private jet cabin technology will run through charter rather than ownership.
It’s a familiar story for anyone who follows aircraft charter: the newest cabins tend to reach the market fastest through operators managing access on a traveller’s behalf, not through waiting lists. Adagold Aviation already sources comparable super-midsize and long-range options, including the Embraer Phenom 300E, Dassault Falcon 900 and Bombardier Challenger 605, for clients who need that kind of range and cabin comfort now. If you’re weighing up your options for an upcoming trip, our business charter and luxury charter specialists can talk you through what’s available.
