RE:Where will the 500s be built? Mobile or Mirabel?I have said many times that I was certain the 500 would be built. Too early to speculate on where.or when. The key takeaway is that the design engineering for this stretch would obviously go to a company with expertise in this area... which would be BOMBARDIER aerospace. It would be far more expensive for Airbus to get their engineers educated on all the complexities of the innovative aspects of the aircraft. Of course Airbus will want to learn everything, however they would want to bring it to market as soon as possible. I am guessing a VERY lucrative engineering contract for Bombardier and fairly soon. And of course the components we build for it.
Such a venture would be best if the engineers were in close proximety to the actual building of the aircraft - which would mean that at least the initial production would be in Montreal.
As for when, I give it at least a year or so before any announcement. By the time of the 2020 Airshow, the JV production ramp up should be well over 100 planes per year, there will be possibly 150 Cseries IN SERVICE with Baltic, Swiss, Korea, Delta, Tanzania, Red (Russia), AND Air Canada and maybe a couple more.
The data from those aircraft will create a HUGE demand for the 500. The rampup growth will be done. The economics of a fleet of one single type of aircraft ie. 100, 300 500 is too good to not have happen. Boing can give away Ejets with 7turdy7s all they want. They are two totally separate aircraft. Zero compatability.
Thus my prediction is a 500 announcement at 2020 show with Delta as launch customer. Initial production at Mirabel. With a line in France once orders hit 500 - which would happen quite quckly. Alabama will be busy with USA 300 orders to complement Montreals then full capacity.of 10 per month. The 320 will be phased out when a later announcement of the 700 is made.
Boing will be shttng brickloads.
%)NowRetired