Bombardier delivers its first CSeries 300 jetliner to Air Baltic

The northern American aerospace conglomerate has, after lengthy delays, finally commercialised its longest aircraft yet as it looks to take on Boeing and Airbus workhorses.

Air Baltic plans to put the first 20 CS300 jetliners it has ordered into service flying between Riga and Amsterdam. Eric Piermont / AFP

The Canadian plane manufacturer Bombardier has delivered its first CS300, purchased by the Latvian carrier Air Baltic which plans to start flying the jetliner on December 14.

It marks the company’s long-delayed move from development into commercialisation of the new aircraft.

Able to carry up to 160 passengers, the CS300 is the longest of Bombardier’s CSeries jetliners, which were designed to compete with the workhorses of the aviation market, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.

For now, the CSeries comes in two versions – the CS100, which can seat 108 to 133 passengers, and the CS300.

Air Baltic said it plans to put the first 20 CS300 jetliners it has ordered into service flying between Riga and Amsterdam.

Bombardier is on track to overcome delays in shipments of engines for the CSeries by the end of next year, according to the head of the company’s commercial aircraft unit.

“It’s going to take mostly through 2017 to get right back on track,” said Fred Cromer, Bombardier’s commercial aircraft president, in Mirabel, Quebec. “We’re still in the same delivery guidance we had for 2017, so it’s manageable.”

Canada’s biggest aerospace manufacturer cut its 2016 forecast in September for shipments of the CSeries, citing delays in the production of Pratt & Whitney engines. Bombardier now expects to hand over seven of the aircraft in this year instead of 15, and is targeting 30 to 35 deliveries in 2017.

The plane maker is working to overcome cost overruns and a delay of more than two years on the US$6 billion CSeries aircraft, a model intended to compete with aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. Bombardier this month sold $1.4bn of senior notes due in December 2021, a deal that provides “all the cash needed for years to come”, said the chief executive Alain Bellemare.

Bombardier is convinced Pratt & Whitney has “got it under control”, Mr Cromer said. “I have all the confidence in the world that they are going to fix their issues.”

The Montreal-based company, which had 356 firm orders for the CSeries in its backlog as of the end of September, has not announced a new sale since signing Delta Air Lines to an estimated $5.6bn pact in late April.

Still, “more and more airlines are seeking out opportunities to talk to us about the aircraft”, Mr Cromer said.

The AirBaltic chief executive Martin Gauss said he would be intrigued by the prospect of a larger CSeries jet. The Latvian carrier has firm orders for 20 CS300s.

“We’re very happy with the CS300, and if Bombardier does something more, we’re very interested to have a discussion,” Mr Gauss said.

For now, though, Bombardier is not talking about a bigger aircraft.

“We get the question quite a bit,” Mr Cromer said of a potential CS500. “One hundred per cent of our focus right is on the current members of the family.”

* Agencies

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