The largest firm order in the USA is from Republic and it just happens they:

1) Can't fly them as express
2) Got out of the business of running their own airline (sold FRNT)
3) Do not have the cash to buy them or business plan to finance them

Not only does Bombardier need to sell more airplanes, some of their existing orders are quite shaky so both Republic and Bombardier are scrambling.

Is this the window that Heppner is talking about?

 

Bombardier C Series Aircraft Certification Program Over 90 per cent Complete | CSeries | Bombardier Commercial Aircraft | Media Hub

I'd say as of 6 days ago, the plan is looking good to get the plane in service since they have the first production plane being assembled and are nearly complete with certification. Granted it is the CS100, and the CS300 is lagging behind by at least 6 months, but it also means they could look at getting 40 of the CS100 and 40 of the CS300. Same type, would work good for deliveries, and the faster we can get the 50 seat RJs gone the better.

 

Give them a break, they haven't designed an airplane since the Challenger

Can't solve this equation with a couple of plugs like they're used to doing.

 

Getting it ceritified is only the first, and perhaps financially easier, problem facing Bombardier.

The killer issue is the necessary funds to get the program moving as they will lose money on the production aircraft until it is fully ramped up and efficiencies achieved. As an example, Boeing is still losing millions on every single 787 they assemble (~300 and counting) and that's not even factoring the insane development costs that Boeing will never recover.

So far the C-Series is $2B and years over budget and that has sucked all the life out of Bombardier including the reserves they would have used to support production.

It would not surprise me at all if Bombardier has already informally asked for Canandian government support as the entire company is in jeopardy. And I would suspect the informal response was: you need to sell some airplanes so we know what we are talking about.

 

Yes Bombardier are in big trouble. They tried to partner with airbus but they aren't interested, see attachment. Latest articles in Aviation Week talk about 3 alternative for Bombardier aircraft to survive.

1) Sell assets
2) Shut down the C-series
3) Accept government intervention

Not sure what the latest Canadian election results mean for option 3.

I applied for a job at Bombardier on the C series and I'm really fortunate I didn't get it.

Airfix

 

The C300 doesn't meet our CBA definition of "new small narrowbody"

 

I imagine they intend to change that definition with the contract extension talks.

I also assume they intend to negotiate a pay rate for the CS100 since it isn't listed under pay rates but the CS300 is in there already.

 

FWIW, the MEC specifically prohibited the negotiating committee from discussing scope for these talks.

Not saying they (both sides) won't try.

That would seem like a reasonable assumption. Personally I would further assume the company would like theoretical CS100 rates closer to the E190 than the CS300.

As a side note, there is already a mechanism in the current contact to establish rates for aircraft not listed in the UPA. The company can buy any aircraft it wants at any time.

 

The C300 isn't considered a NSNB because it's basically the same capacity as the A319 or 737-700. We need them to bring the 100-110 seat jet to mainline.

As far as pay rates go, we already have E190 and E195 rates so they can order those planes with no discussions. I can't imagine they would delay an order because of the lack of negotiated pay rates. CBA 3-J covers everything about new aircraft types.

 

There is a lot of noise from the RAH community thinking they will get a flow if we take their C Series orders off their hands. Is there any reason something like this couldn't come to fruition?