Airbus buys stake in Bombardier’s new jetliner

Canadian jet-maker Bombardier announced Monday that it is selling a controlling stake in its 100150-seat C-series jetliner to European manufacturer Airbus, just weeks after the Commerce Department moved to impose 300 percent tariffs on the plane. The companies also said they will expand the plane’s production to a new facility in Mobile, Ala., a move that could help it avoid the import duty.

Executives from Airbus and Bombardier touted the deal’s U.S. job-creation potential.

“This is a win-win for everybody,” Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said in a statement. “Not only will this partnership secure the C Series and its industrial operations in Canada, the U.K. and China, but we also bring new jobs to the U.S.”

The deal included no up-front cash payment. When the deal closes Airbus will own just over half of the C-series plane, Bombardier will own 31 percent and a Canadian state investment agency will own the remaining 19 percent.

The combination significantly complicates what had been a three-way trade dispute between the United States, Canada and Britain. With Airbus’s ownership of the C-series aircraft, the dispute now touches France, Germany and Spain, where Airbus has a significant presence.

The dispute started in May when Chicago-based aerospace manufacturer Boeing asked the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate allegations that Bombardier is selling the C-series plane in the United States at an unfairly-low price and doing so with the help of illegal government subsidies. Bombardier had earlier struck a deal to sell 75 C series CS100 jets to Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.

In two separate rulings over the past few weeks the U.S. Commerce Department ruled in Boeing’s favor on both counts, imposing a preliminary 300 percent tariff on Bombardier planes.

In its published reactions to Airbus and Bombardier’s combination, Boeing sought to cast the deal as a blatant attempt to circumvent U.S. trade law.

“This looks like a questionable deal between two heavily statesubsidized competitors to skirt the recent findings of the U.S. government,” a Boeing spokesman said in a statement Monday. “Our position remains that everyone should play by the same rules for free and fair trade to work.”