Originally Posted by
flyguy81
I worked there and flew that plane 4 yrs before coming here. Legacies are all way behind on tech except for the A220….which wasn’t even on the radar of the legacies until Bombardier screwed the pooch and sold the controlling interest in the plane to Airbus.
Bombardier was trying to persuade a North American customer for over budget, overdue 220 plane. Finally get Delta to order 100 at (arguably a loss) but Boeing (despite not even having a competing product) throws a hissy fit to the WTO and complains that the Cannuck govt (in full socialist mode wanting to preserve manufacturing jobs in Canada) had loaned/given Bombardier something like $2B in subsidies to develop the clean sheet 220.
WTO (with US backing) decides it's appropriate to levy 300% duty on any imported 220.
Bombardier left with no option but to sell 51% to Airbus who in turn expand their Alabama manufacturing plant to produce planes for North American markets to avoid duties.
Them is the facts, so hard to see how Bombardier "screwed the pooch" except to try and design a clean sheet airplane to compete with the big boys in the small B737 and A319 sized market.