Although the new Mitsubishi MRJ70/90 aircraft family has a launch customer in ANA, the technology being offered may not be enough to differentiate it in the marketplace, Embraer CEO Fred Curado said.

Embraer has been monitoring market competitors in China and Russia for a while, Curado said at an Aviation Week Group editorial board meeting this month. "But the mitigating factor with the Mitsubishi launch is that the timing is not ideal," he said. "It will take a few years to see what should be included on next-generation aircraft, which is not clearly defined right now."

Embraer is predicting it will not be until 2016-17 that the market sees aircraft products with next-generation technology, Curado said. "The Mitsubishi jets will come to the market in 2013, right before the new technology is expected," he said. "Even using today's technology and doing everything right, the MRJs will not be materially better than the Embraer 170/190 family. They will be caught between two generations of aircraft."

Mitsubishi is not a threat that could jeopardize Embraer's future, but it is a competitor, Curado said. "And a point we made strongly to the Japanese press is that it would not be tolerable for its government to subsidize the [MRJ]," he warned. As a member of the World Trade Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, there are rules Japan must follow, and that includes no subsidies, he added.