On April 9, 2024, Embraer announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Correios to develop conversions of passenger and military aircraft into cargo carriers, including models like the E-190F, E-195F, and the military C-390 Millennium. Correios claims to be Brazil's largest air transport operator.
Currently, Correios' fleet comprises only one B737-300F and two B737-400F, in a vast country where air transport is essential. For example, the cities of Porto Alegre and Fortaleza are 2,100 kilometers apart. For transporting letters and packages, Correios primarily utilizes the belly cargo holds of passenger airlines. Fabiano Silva dos Santos, president of the company, stated, "With this partnership, we can bring greater efficiency to our logistics network and thus benefit the Brazilian population, which is our greatest mission as a public company and representative of the federal government."
Correios is particularly interested in the military model C-390 Millennium, which boasts a payload of 26 tons and a range of up to 6,200 kilometers, sufficient to cover all of Brazil. The logistics network of Correios consists of over ten thousand branches, employing 23,000 vehicles and 83,000 employees.
Embraer is also developing its own cargo plane based on the E-Jet passenger model, which has successfully completed its first flight test. For this model, the manufacturer has already received orders for twenty units. Embraer is clearly interested in the international market as well, where the conversion of the C-390 Millennium model could serve in the cargo segment of up to 30 tons.
