BOMBARDIER CEO DOWNPLAYS PARIS AIR SHOW
‘We might not announce very large orders’
MIAMI • Bombardier Inc.’ s CEO appears to be managing expectations for the upcoming Paris Air Show, saying people shouldn’t pay too much attention to the number of new CSeries orders the company is able to generate there.
In an interview with the Financial Post, Alain Bellemare said he doesn’t consider the air show — considered one of the prime industry events to showcase new aircraft and attract potential customers — to be essential to the future of the troubled CSeries program.
“People will want to make a big deal out of the fact that we might not announce very large orders,” Bellemare said Monday, speaking on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association’s annual meeting in Miami.
“It’s just an event. People often make a big milestone out of this, when in fact it’s just a great opportunity to meet with customers and talk about the business.”
The Paris event, which begins June 15, will be the first time Bombardier has brought the CSeries to a major air show. The company confirmed Monday that it will have both models of the aircraft — the CS100 and CS300 — at the show, as well as its Q400 NetGen turboprop and the CRJ1000 NetGen regional jet.
The CSeries was conspicuously absent at the Farnborough International Airshow (which alternates years with Paris) last summer after an engine fire grounded the CS100 during flight-testing.
“I think what is important is to recognize now that the aircraft is performing, whereas a year ago the aircraft didn’t make it because we had engine issues,” Bellemare said, adding that Paris is just one step in the CSeries’ “long, long journey.”
However, not everyone agrees with Bellemare that Paris won’t be a make-orbreak event for the aircraft, which has struggled with multiple delays, cost overruns and slow sales.
“If they go through this air show without a blockbuster announcement of orders, I think it will be a really dark week for them,” Rolland Vincent, former director of airline analysis at Bombardier, said in an April interview.
Bombardier is sticking to its target of having 300 firm orders by the time the CSeries begins commercial flights in the first half of 2016, but has so far only been able to secure 243 and hasn’t announced a new firm order since last September.
Partly in response to this challenge, Bellemare has undertaken a significant management overhaul, bringing in six new executives and announcing a search for a new CFO since he replaced Pierre Beaudoin in February.
He said Monday that there may be more announcements to come.
“There might be a few more changes that we will do, but by and large I think we’re getting to the right place,” he said.
Bellemare is putting his stamp on the company in other ways as well. Since he took over the corner office, Bombardier has announced that it will spin off a minority stake in its train-making division, curtail production of its largest class of business aircraft and renew its focus on its existing aircraft.
Bellemare is upfront about the challenges facing Bombardier than his predecessor was, but he ultimately remains upbeat about the company’s future. “I’m calling this the inflection point where we’re moving from the negative side to the positive side, and now it’s about strengthening the order book,” he said.