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Bombardier Inc. ’s new commercial aircraft boss said Thursday that it is considering of a third model of its new CSeries jetliner that could compete with the core single-aisle jet offerings from its European and American rivals.
Bombardier’s current CSeries jets compete with the smallest models from Boeing Co. and Airbus Group NV. The Canadian company has struggled with slow sales, delays, and high costs for developing those models. A third model would compete in the huge market for single-aisle jets with roughly 160 to 180 seats, said Fred Cromer, president of Bombardier’s commercial aircraft division.
“We’re seeing opportunities where a next version of this plane can be more of a reality,†Mr. Cromer said in an interview.
Bombardier is currently progressing through flight testing of the first two CSeries models. Certification of the 125-seat CS100 is about 70% complete and the jet is on track for regulatory approvals by year-end and entry into service in mid-2016—about 2½ years after it was first expected. The larger CS300, which seats as many as 160 people in a high-density arrangement, is expected to follow six months later.
A notional third model, dubbed the CS500, would compete with larger versions of coming updated models of Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’s A320 that have sold by the thousands since 2010.
Mr. Cromer indicated Bombardier needs to get through testing the first two models to determine if there is an opportunity for a CS500 that might use the same wings, for example, a major cost savings. He said it is too soon to discuss potential specification or capacity for a new model, but that “it would have to be†aimed to compete with the most popular models of the 737 and A320 “otherwise we wouldn’t do it.â€
In my opinion they should have offered this from the begging and their sales book would be a heck of lot better looking today.
Thats just my opinion I could be wrong.
bombardier and pratt and whitney are Canadian icons. Im so happy to see the development of high technology and design coming together between these two. Developing a clean sheet design and only being 2.5 years behind schedule is pretty impressive on this scale. Hoping for more to come from bombardier in the future. Way to go boys
Agree, however I think their is a mentality in this country to be far to conservative when it comes to business and risk. I have said it before and I will say it again they should have bett the farm on this project back when it was the BRJX, instead they kept stretching the CRJ's. Meanwhile this allowed Embraer entered the market with the E170,190 and thus loosing market share.
Sure BBD has been very successful with the CRJs and that was the conservative route to take but when everyone's selling laptops that is the time you develop ipads.
My old company, Republic, is supposed to be the launch customer. However since they are a regional, they can't fly it on either of their certificates, since it would violate the scope clauses of the brands they fly for.
It came through IND last year so the Mx and HQ leople could oogle at it.
But alas, I don't care. I'm not in the running to fly it, and hope to see a jet come from Canada that isn't a POS.
Sorry gents, the CRJ is miles behind Embraer products. Specifically the 170/190.
