SAO PAULO: Brazilian plane maker Embraer said Friday it returned to being in the black in the second quarter, as global air travel partially recovered from the pandemic. Beating expectations with a net profit that the company said came in at 438.1 million reais ($87.9 million), Embraer's shares were up more than six percent in afternoon trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange.

Chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto said the "solid" results came partly thanks to strong commercial jet sales, which generated revenues of $338.5 million.

That was more than triple the figure from the second quarter of 2020, when Embraer, the world's third-biggest plane maker, posted a net loss of $315.3 million as Covid-19 brought the global aviation industry to a near-halt.

The company had posted a loss of $89.7 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Embraer said it had delivered 14 commercial planes for the April-June period, up from just four for the same period in 2020. It delivered 20 executive planes, up from 13 a year ago.

The company was also hit hard last year when US aerospace giant Boeing ditched plans for a $4.2 billion deal to buy the Brazilian company's commercial plane division.

Embraer, the biggest plane maker after Airbus and Boeing, also announced plans Friday to make its operations carbon neutral by 2040.