Luxury business jet program is on track, Bombardier says
Despite turmoil in the commercial division, development of Bombardier Inc.’s new ultralong-range luxury business jets is proceeding on schedule and according to plan, the company announced Tuesday.
Bombardier hosted a tour of its Toronto hangar, inviting media and industry guests to board a mockup of its large-cabin private Global 7000 jet and one of the flight test vehicles being built. David Coleal, president of Bombardier Business Aircraft, said demand for the Global 7000 and 8000 hasn’t been affected by trouble in other parts of the company.
“We feel very strongly about the 7000 and 8000 market space. It’s going to continue to grow,” Coleal said. “Bombardier is a healthy company from a liquidity perspective ... that gives investors confidence that Bombardier is going to be around.”
That recent injection of liquidity comes courtesy of the government of Quebec, which announced a $1 billion US bailout of Bombardier’s troubled CSeries commercial jets last week in exchange for a 49.5 per cent stake in a new limited partnership that will control the program. The aircraft has experienced multiple delays, a year of weak sales and cost overruns, causing Bombardier to announce a $3.2 billion US impairment charge and a $4.9 billion US third-quarter loss on Thursday.
Bombardier also announced it would cancel its Learjet 85 program, cancelling 64 orders for the new business jet. In a conference call with analysts, Bombardier chief executive Alain Bellemare said the company had overwhelmed itself with “too many initiatives or projects ongoing in parallel.”
Bombardier representatives declined to answer specific questions about the CSeries at Tuesday’s event, but offered reassurances that demand for the Global 7000 and 8000 is strong and production remains on track. Michel Ouellette, senior vice-president of the Global 7000 and 8000 program, said he is “very confident” the company will be able to introduce the 7000 in the second half of 2018.
That timeline itself represents a delay, however. In July, Bombardier pushed the luxury jet’s launch date back from its previously promised 2016.
Coleal said the Global 7000 and 8000 can’t be compared to the now-cancelled Learjet, private jets offered by competitors or anything else on the market, saying the fourchambered planes are a completely new, “class-defining ” product. Despite softening demand for business jets in emerging markets that led Bombardier to cut production of its Global 5000 and 6000 jets in May and lay off 1,750 workers, the market for top-of-the-line private planes continues to grow among the world’s wealthiest people, he said.
The Global 7000 mock-up showcased by Bombardier offered a sense of what it would be like to fly in one of the jets, featuring a bedroom with a full bed, a bathroom and a dining room in dark brown and cream tones. The real thing, which is being prepared for flight tests, is still filled with tangles of exposed cables.