Air Canada will firm up CSeries order within ‘weeks’: CEO.

TRANSPORT ‘It’s coming together pretty quickly’: CEO

TORONTO• Air Canada will firm up its CSeries order within “weeks,” but some level of government funding will still be necessary to help Bombardier Inc. succeed, the airline’s chief executive said on Monday.

“It’s coming together pretty quickly now ,” Air Canada CEO Cali n Rovinescu told reporters when asked how soon the airline will turn its letter of intent into a firm order.

“We’re looking at a fairly short timeframe, like in the next weeks. It’s not going to be a long, drawn-out affair.”

Once this happens, Air Canada will become the first firm CSeries customer Bombardier has snagged since September 2014.

The deal, which is for 45 of the larger CS300 aircraft, will bring the total number of firm orders for the CSeries to 288, tantalizingly close to Bombardier’s goal of having 300 on the books when the aircraft enters service this summer.

Air Canada’s order is worth US$ 3.8 billion at list prices, although it has been reported that the airline received a significant discount.

It is Bombardier’s first CSeries order from a major North American airline, and also includes an option for 30 more aircraft.

In a speech to the Empire Club of Canada Monday, Rovinescu said Air Canada’s support of the CSeries “sends an important signal to the market that should give other airlines the confidence to purchase this extremely efficient, next-generation aircraft.”

But he also said the federal government needs to “step up” and accommodate Bombardier’s request for US$ 1 billion in financial aid.

“For important global champions ( like Bombardier) to succeed, they do require some level of support from government,” Rovinescu told reporters after his speech. “In one fashion or another, if we recognize that Bombardier is the leader in aerospace in this country, you would expect governments to step up.”

Navdeep Bains, federal minister of innovation, science and economic development, said last week that the government is still conducting its “due diligence” on the request.

Bombardier wants Ottawa to match the US$ 1 billion it received from Quebec in October. In exchange, the provincial government took a 49.5 per cent stake in the CSeries program.

Rovinescu also weighed in on Alaska Air Group Inc.’s US$ 2.6- billion deal to buy Virgin America Inc.

The U. S. airline industry has undergone a wave of consolidation that has, to this point, mostly involved larger players like United Continental Holdings Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc.

Rovinescu said the deal, announced Monday, indicates that smaller players want in on the action too.

“It doesn’t change the landscape dramatically, but generally speaking consolidation has been healthy for the industry; companies are much healthier than they were a decade ago,” he said.

“Now you have strong companies like JetBlue (another bidder for the Virgin assets) and Alaska that are figuring out what their next moves are. … That is a healthy thing for the industry.”

Rovinescu said he isn’t worried about i ncreased competition on Air Canada’s transborder routes from the newly merged airline.

Virgin currently has no routes to Canada, while Alaska flies to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Whistler and Kelowna, B.C.

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