Brazilian plane maker Embraer SA is studying the market and new technology that could warrant it building an all-new jet, CEO Francisco Gomes Neto told CNBC.

A new airplane could help the airplane manufacturer compete with much larger rivals Airbus and Boeing, which deliver hundreds of jets a year compared with Embraer’s dozens of aircraft.

But Gomes Neto noted that no decisions have been made yet.

“At this point in time, we don’t have concrete plans to go to a big narrow-body,” he said, adding that the studies for new engine technologies, avionics and potential demand are “to be prepared.”

In the meantime, Gomes Neto said Embraer is focused on improving results and selling its regional planes, which won orders earlier this year from American Airlines, manufacturing its E2 jet and “delivering what we promise” customers.

The FAA approved a freighter version of its E190 passenger-to-freighter converted jet earlier this month, helping clear the way for its commercial introduction.

“This is maybe the advantage we have: We have a great product [that’s] available,” Gomes Neto said.

Both Airbus and Boeing are struggling to ramp up production and deliver aircraft on time in the wake of the pandemic. Boeing has the added challenges of a safety crisis and a machinist strike.

Boeing once had plans to take control of Embraer’s commercial jet business but ended those discussions in early 2020. Last month, Embraer said Boeing would pay it $150 million over the scuttled plan.

Like its competitors, Embraer is facing supply chain strains coming out of the pandemic, and the company is taking a more in-depth look at delivery capabilities.

Engines, hydraulic valves, cabin interiors and components for them are some of the areas where it has been difficult to ramp up production from suppliers, Gomes Neto said. He added that he expects supply chain problems will likely ease in 2026.

Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems will furlough some 700 workers as a strike by machinists at the plane maker enters its sixth week, a spokesman for the supplier said Friday.

More than 32,000 Boeing workers walked off the job Sept. 13 after overwhelmingly rejecting a tentative labor deal with Boeing, deepening the aircraft producer’s financial strain and handing a new challenge to CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the reins just over two months ago.

The temporary furloughs account for about 5% of Spirit’s U.S. workforce, according to its latest annual filing.

The temporary furloughs will affect employees at Spirit’s largest facilities, in Wichita, Kansas, and account for about 5% of Spirit’s U.S. workforce, according to its latest annual filing. Meanwhile, Boeing and its machinists’ union remain at an impasse, and Spirit is considering deeper cuts.

“If the strike continues beyond November, we will have to implement layoffs and additional furloughs,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told CNBC on Friday.

Ortberg, who faces investors in his first earnings call next Wednesday, last week announced a series of drastic measures meant to slash costs as the company’s losses mount, including cutting the workforce by 10%, or about 17,000 people. Boeing is also ending 767 commercial production when orders are fulfilled in 2027 and said its long-delayed 777X wide-body jet won’t debut until 2026, pushing it back yet another year.

Boeing is in the process of raising debt or equity to increase liquidity.

The roughly 700 Spirit workers affected by the 21-day furlough are assigned to the 777 and 767 programs for Boeing, for which Spirit has built up “significant inventory,” Buccino said. Spirit workers on Boeing’s bestselling 737 Max are not affected, he added. Work on all three programs, however, is stalled because of the strike.

Boeing agreed to acquire Spirit this summer, but the companies don’t expect the deal to close until mid-2025. Reuters earlier reported Spirit’s latest furloughs.

Boeing and its machinists’ union have reached a new contract proposal, the union said Saturday, outlining a deal that could end a more than month-long strike that has hobbled the manufacturers’ aircraft production.

The ratification vote is set for Wednesday.

The new proposal includes 35% wage increases over four years, a higher signing bonus of $7,000, guaranteed minimum payouts in an annual bonus program and higher 401(k) contributions among other changes.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su met with both parties earlier this week.  “With the help of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, we have received a negotiated proposal and resolution to end the strike, and it warrants presenting to the members and is worthy of your consideration,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 said in a statement Saturday.

The strike began Sept. 13 after more than 30,000 machinists overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement that included 25% wage increases over four years. Boeing later made a sweetened offer but the union blasted it saying it was not negotiated.

“We look forward to our employees voting on the negotiated proposal,” Boeing said in a statement.

Boeing is working to stop bleeding cash as it grapples with a safety crisis stemming from a near-catastrophic door plug blowout on one of its 737 Maxes at start the year and challenges in its other programs.

The company earlier this month said it will report a deep loss and take charges of about $5 billion in its commercial and defense units. A ratified contract on Wednesday, when Boeing also reports full results, would be a victory for new CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took the company’s top job in August, tasked with reshaping the company.

On Oct. 11, he announced job cuts of 10% of Boeing’s workforce and that the company will stop making 767s when orders are fulfilled in 2027.

Chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, milkshakes — and now TV shows and podcasts?

Chick-fil-A plans to launch a new app on Nov. 18, with a slate of original animated shows, scripted podcasts, games, recipes and e-books aimed at families.

While it’s an unusual move for a restaurant company to wade into the crowded media world, Chick-fil-A has been expanding outside of food for years already — with the ultimate goal of directing more people to its over 3,000 restaurants. Since 2019, Chick-fil-A has held the spot of the third-biggest U.S. restaurant chain by sales, trailing only Starbucks and McDonald’s, with many fewer locations than either. Last year, its revenue reached $7.89 billion, according to franchisee disclosure documents.

As it tries to drive more restaurant sales, the company has sold branded merchandise, like a sleeping bag that resembles its chicken sandwich’s packaging, and created a spinoff brand called Pennycake, which offers family-friendly games and puzzles. And for the last five years, it’s released animated shorts on YouTube during the holiday season as part of its “Stories of Evergreen Hills” series.

“We’ve been paying attention to some research and conversations we’ve had with families that are our customers, and insights bubbled up that content and games are both adjacent to mealtime,” said Dustin Britt, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of brand strategy, entertainment and media.

“Our belief is, as we add value to their experience, then we’re giving them a reason to want to enjoy more Chick-fil-A with us,” he added.

A preview of the app viewed by CNBC included the first 22-minute episode of “Legends of Evergreen Hills,” which continues protagonist Sam’s adventures in the fantasy world of Evergreen Hills; the first installment of “Hidden Island,” a scripted podcast about a family that shipwrecks on a deserted island; and a step-by-step cooking tutorial that uses a Chick-fil-A milkshake as a key ingredient.

Customers can pre-download the free Chick-fil-A Play app for their iPhones, iPads and Android devices ahead of the launch next month.

Chick-fil-A decided to create the app following years of discussions with customers and as consumer behavior shifts away from prolonged visits to its restaurants.

While many of Chick-fil-A’s customers still enjoy its in-restaurant playgrounds, more of its customers are now using its drive-thru lanes and ordering delivery, according to Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of brand strategy, advertising and media. Rival McDonald’s has slowly been erasing its PlayPlaces, a change likely resulting from fewer children using the playgrounds, concerns about health and safety, and a shift away from marketing to children.

“We’re looking at this app as a way to have a digital playground for the entire family to enjoy, whether they’re in our restaurants, in the drive-thru, driving to soccer practice or even relaxing at home,” Cooper told CNBC. “We want it to be an extension of our in-restaurant signature hospitality and generosity.”

The content on the app focuses on themes like generosity, friendship, problem-solving, creativity and entrepreneurship, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A designed the app’s content to appeal to children 12 years old and under and their parents.

After the initial launch, new episodes of “Legends of Evergreen Hills” will release weekly through the holidays; “Hidden Island” will follow a similar drop schedule. Next year, the Play app will launch “Ice Lions,” another scripted audio series based on the true story of Kenyan teenagers who want to form the country’s first ice hockey team.

Most of the content that will be available on the app was created with outside partners led by Chick-fil-A’s internal team, but some of it was licensed. The company didn’t disclose the names of its external partners.

“We’re constantly thinking about what additional elements we can add into the app over time,” Cooper said.

In August, media publication Deadline reported that Chick-fil-A has been working with outside production companies for content, including unscripted shows, like a family-friendly game show.

“I’ll say that we’re exploring a variety of different types of content, and everything right now is a potential opportunity for us. We’re going to keep learning and exploring and figuring out what things work,” Britt said.

As legacy media players like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have found out, making content is expensive and attracting viewers is difficult, given the glut of available options on streaming services.

For brands like Chick-fil-A, the calculus is a bit different. Rather than using content to make money from subscriptions or advertisements, they’re looking to sell more of their own products. That’s been the case since Procter & Gamble first sponsored daytime radio shows to sell its soap — creating the soap opera.

“There’s a lot of content creation that happens from media houses for brands, and I think that brands want to tap into that because it feels more authentic. It feels more like content and not an ad,” said Stephani Estes, chief media officer for Goodway Group, a digital marketing agency.

More recent entrants include Starbucks, which announced this summer that it will create original content through a partnership with Sugar23. And in January, Chuck E. Cheese said it’s working with “Top Chef” producer Magical Elves to create its own game show.

“I think the biggest question I would have, as a marketing professional, is what is the business problem that you’re trying to solve? And is the dollar invested in that content creation or particular initiative going to pay out more than spending that dollar somewhere else in the marketing funnel?” Estes said.

For Chick-fil-A, the branded content gives it a way to connect with kids — without the same stink as advertising directly to them — and foster goodwill toward the brand from their parents.

And unlike Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, Chick-fil-A has some flexibility to figure out if the investment is working. As a family-owned company, it isn’t beholden to shareholders who might push back against an expensive marketing endeavor.

Chick-fil-A also has cash to burn, especially given its meteoric growth over the last decade. From 2018 to 2023, its systemwide sales nearly doubled. Last year, it raked in net earnings of $1.07 billion. Chair Dan Cathy, who served as CEO from 2013 to 2021 and is father to current CEO Andrew Cathy, has a net worth of $10.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

Coincidentally, Dan Cathy owns Atlanta-based Trilith Studios, whose stages have acted as sets for many Marvel movies and TV shows, plus Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 mega-flop “Megalopolis.” Tax breaks and cheap labor have helped Atlanta become the “Hollywood of the South” over the last decade. Cathy has previously drawn criticism for remarks he made in 2012 opposing same-sex marriage, and the company’s foundation donated to anti-LGBTQ groups during his time as chief executive.

Dan Cathy was not directly involved in the development of the Play app or making decisions related to the content, according to Cooper. Chick-fil-A also hasn’t worked with his studio — yet.

“We’ve not currently done any work directly with Trilith to date, but that’s something that we continue to explore, where it makes the most sense for both our businesses and brands,” she said.

Disney has tapped James Gorman to replace Mark Parker as the company’s next chairman, effective in January, as the media giant lays the groundwork to name a successor for CEO Bob Iger in early 2026, the company said Monday.

Gorman joined Disney’s board less than a year ago and was named the head of the succession planning committee in August. He will continue to lead that committee after he takes over as board chairman from Nike Executive Chairman Parker.

“The Disney board has benefited tremendously from James Gorman’s expertise and guidance, and we are lucky to have him as our next chairman — particularly as the board continues to move forward with the succession process,” Iger said in a statement. “I’m extremely grateful to Mark Parker for his many years of board service and leadership, which have been so valuable to this company and its shareholders, and to me as CEO.”

Parker will step down after nine years on the Disney board “to focus on other areas” of his work, according to a Disney statement. That includes spending more time working on Nike-related matters, according to a person familiar with the matter. Elliott Hill took over as Nike CEO last week, replacing John Donahoe.

Disney had initially targeted 2025 to announce a successor, as CNBC reported last year. Pushing the date back to early 2026 will give the board more time to conduct due diligence on both internal and external candidates, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

Gorman has experience with succession planning: He oversaw the orderly transfer of power at Morgan Stanley, with Ted Pick succeeding him as CEO there at the start of this year.

Succession hasn’t been smooth at Disney. The board fired Iger’s handpicked successor, Bob Chapek, in November 2022 after a turbulent tenure that lasted less than three years. Iger returned to the CEO job, and now, Disney shareholders are eager to see a succession plan stick.

Iger’s four direct reports — ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro, and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman — have all interviewed with the succession committee in recent weeks, since Gorman took over in August, according to the people familiar.

Gorman said in a CNBC interview in March, before taking over as the board’s succession chair, that Disney was running a “forward-looking, forward-leaning, incredibly disciplined process.”

Still, while putting a specific timeline on naming a successor adds a bit of clarity to the search, it also means the question of who will take over for Iger will continue to hover over the company for another year.

Iger has pushed back his retirement five different times to continue to lead Disney as CEO. Activist investor Nelson Peltz focused on the board’s failure to name a lasting successor in his unsuccessful campaign to gain board seats earlier this year.

Iger’s current contract as CEO runs until Dec. 31, 2026. He and the board haven’t decided if Iger will extend his board tenure past 2026, said the people familiar.