Dark skies ahead for Bombardier’s new CSeries jetliner

MONTREAL: Withsalesof itsnew CSeries jetliner failing to take off and a sinking share price, despite a multi-billion dollar government cash injection, the horizon is darkening for Bombardier.

Suddenly, the Canadian manufacturer’s dream – going head to head with the workhorses of the aviation market, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, in its first foray outside business and regional passenger aircraft into the category of medium-range, single-aisle jets – is turning into a nightmare.

The first completely new aircraft design in the 100- to 150-seat category in more than 25 years was supposed to offer significant fuel savings over its rivals.

But a two-year delay in its development allowed both Airbus and Boeing to freshen up their respective lineups with the launch of the A320neo and 737 Max, which are similar to their old planes but with new fuel-saving engines.

The first neo rolled off the assembly line in January, while Boeing expects to deliver its first Max in late 2017.

Bombardier is expected to make the first delivery of its CSeries to Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss in the coming months. But it can no longer boast of 20 per cent fuel savings over competitors. — AFP

At best, the CSeries is 10 per cent more fuel-efficient than the neo or Max, Bombardier has acknowledged. Considering that airlines would also have to shell out money to train pilots on the new aircraft, that makes the CSeries less attractive to potential buyers.

Meanwhile, development costs havesoaredtoUS$5.4billion,nearly double the amount Bombardier had budgeted.

The CSeries “was an attractive purchase when oil cost US$120 a barrel, but at US$29, the argument for fuel savings falls apart,” Mehran Ebrahimi, an aeronautics professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) told AFP.

But the fact remains that the CSeries is ‘ incredibly quiet,’ which is a welcome design improvement for people who live near an airport, commented Isabelle Dostaler, another aviation expert at Concordia University in Montreal.

Ebrahimi noted that Airbus and Boeing are trying to undercut Bombardier and hold onto their duopoly in this segment by offering deep discounts on their new jetliners.

And it appears to be working. Airbus has received 4,500 orders for its neo, while Bombardier has received no new orders for its CSeries since September 2014, after landing 243 orders during its development stage.

Faced with these difficulties, Bombardier asked for and received US$2.5 billion from the government of Quebec province, where it is based, to get its CSeries programme off the ground, giving up a 49.5 per cent stake in the CSeries programme and 30 per cent of its rail unit in exchange. — AFP