Bombardier dismisses CSeries sales fears
PARIS — If and when Bombardier Inc.’s CSeries takes to the skies for the first time in Mirabel next week, it will be powered by about 40,000 roaring pounds of thrust. But the jet cannot get any traction at all at air shows.
The CSeries has laid another goose egg in sales at this year’s Paris air show, the global industry’s most prestigious showcase.
But Chet Fuller said in an interview that he’s not worried in the least. “We’re doing just fine,” the senior vice-president for Bombardier Commercial Aircraft said in an interview on Wednesday.
And he dismissed a large chunk of the 365 orders rival Embraer SA of Brazil announced in Paris for its newly-announced E2 lineup of re-engineered regional jets as smoke and mirrors.
“Look, we’ve always said we don’t time announcements for the show. We announced Ilyushin (Finance Co., an aircraft leasing firm, on June 4, two weeks before the Paris air show) because it was ready and the customer wanted it announced.”
Bombardier also announced deals with Gulf Air and confirmed Odyssey Airlines was a previously undisclosed customer.
“We view all that activity in a prudent business method. It’s not driven by headlines.”
Bombardier has also often made a series of blockbuster announcements at the Paris and Farnborough air shows — the aviation world’s two largest trade shows alternate annually. But that was usually with regional-jet sales, before that segment was hammered by soaring fuel prices that made the RJ industry less profitable.
Fuller said that a conditional order from International Lease Finance Corp. Tuesday for up to 100 E2 planes will soon be revealed to be much less than was trumpeted by the media here.
“There’s conditions that are huge. All kinds of conditions — plus, plus, plus.”
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