Scudrunners

By Jon Ostrower
Updated May 21, 2015 4:39 p.m. ET

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.”

Write to Jon Ostrower at jon.ostrower@wsj.com