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.
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has announced that the CS100 has completed its certification flight testing, subject to Transport Canada’s final review and acceptance.
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.
Pratt & Whitney has confirmed that the first PurePower PW1000G geared-turbofan engine to enter service will be a PW1100G on an Airbus A320neo rather than a PW1500G on a Bombardier CS100.
In announcing the new airline at Malaysia’s Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition, the Malaysian government also revealed the new carrier had signed an LOI with Bombardier Commercial Aircraft for up to 40 CS100s.
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.
Bombardier CS100 C-FBCS, which the manufacturer calls CSeries Flight Test Vehicle One, landed at Mirabel Airport some 30 miles north of Montreal at 12:22 p.m. local time, following a 2 hour 29 minute first flight.
At 9:53 a.m. on September 16, after a short take-off run, Bombardier CS100 C-FBCS ‒ named Flight Test Vehicle 1 by Bombardier Aerospace ‒ took off into a clear blue sky from Mirabel Airport some 30 miles north of Montreal.
Bombardier Aerospace has obtained Transport Canada’s Flight Test Permit for the first CSeries aircraft – Flight Test Vehicle 1 – thereby clearing the way for its maiden flight.
