Even though Bombardier has announced poor financial results for 2015 which include $5.6 billion of write-downs and charges, the Canadian manufacturer has reported two important and positive items of commercial-aircraft news.
Launch operator Swiss International Air Lines has converted its firm order for 30 Bombardier CS100 jets to specify that 10 of the aircraft be of the larger Bombardier CS300 version.
An existing customer, which has requested to remain unidentified for now, has placed an additional conditional order for seven Bombardier CS300 airliners and has acquired purchase rights for six more. The deal takes total CSeries orders and commitments to 513 aircraft.
An African airline which is an existing Bombardier customer but which wishes to remain unidentified for now has signed a letter of intent to order five CSeries airliners. The $365 million list-price value of the deal appears to indicate the aircraft are CS300s rather than CS100s.
On the first day of the Farnborough International Airshow 2014, Bombardier revealed commitments for CSeries jets from three new customers and conversion of an earlier commitment from an existing customer into a firm order for two CS300s.
Abu Dhabi-based Falcon Aviation Services has signed a letter of intent to order one Bombardier CS300 aircraft and to take an option for another. With this commitment, Falcon Aviation Services becomes the first customer for the Bombardier CSeries family in the United Arab Emirates.
Bombardier Aerospace has announced that an existing, unidentified CS300 customer has placed a firm order for an additional three examples of the type. The purchase increases the firm orderbook for the Bombardier CSeries family to 201 aircraft.
Bombardier Aerospace has announced a sizable new firm order for CSeries jets from a new Saudi Arabian airline but at the same time has confirmed it has postponed the entry into service of its new commercial-jet family by at least seven or eight months.
Iraqi Airways, the national carrier of Iraq, has signed a letter of intent to order five Bombardier CS300 mainline jetliners and option 11 more CS300s. The LOI was executed at the Dubai Airshow 2013, during a visit that included government officials from Iraq, Canada, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Vim Airlines, which is based at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, is IFC’s first lessee for CS300 airliners. As a result, Vim Airlines is in pole position to become Russia’s first airline to operate the Bombardier CSeries family of commercial jets.
Moscow-based leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co.’s shareholders have approved its conditional purchase agreement with Bombardier Aerospace for CS300 jetliners and the deal is now a firm order. It increases total firm sales of the Bombardier CSeries family to 177 aircraft and Bombardier holds lesser commitments on another 211.
Both aircraft, which are of the Bombardier CS100 version, are 95 per cent complete and require only installation of minor systems, after which they will enter final function testing. At the unveiling, the manufacturer revealed it had increased the length of the CS300’s fuselage slightly.
Bombardier Aerospace has introduced an extra-capacity seating option that will allow its new CS300 commercial jet to seat up to 160 passengers. Bombardier has confirmed that Latvia-based airBaltic is a customer for the higher-capacity CS300 version.
Moscow-based leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co. has signed a purchase agreement to acquire 32 Bombardier CS300 jets and has taken options on an additional 10. The order came the same day Transport Canada type-certified the PW1500G engine powering all CSeries jets.
The order represents a major step in AirBaltic’s strategic move to operate an all-Bombardier fleet. The move will also see the Latvian carrier eventually taking additional Bombardier Q400NextGen turboprop airliners to add to eight already in service.
The cockpit and all fuselage sections for the Bombardier CSeries first flight test vehicle (FTV1) have arrived at Bombardier’s final assembly line for the CSeries at Mirabel, Québec, and assembly of FTV1 has begun.
Assembly of the static test airframe for Bombardier’s new CSeries commercial aircraft is well underway at the company’s Experimental Test Facility in St-Laurent, Québec. Bombardier is also now conducting virtual flights at Mirabel with the CSeries Integrated Systems Test and Certification Rig.
