Bombardier Commercial Aircraft has a purchase order for 45 CS3000 jets from Air Canada, with options for up to 30 more of the same aircraft. If all the options were to be fulfilled, the contract would be worth up to $3.8 billion at the current listed prices.
The new confirms and finalizes an initial announcement of the deal that the Montréal-based OEM made earlier this year.
“I’m pleased to officially welcome Air Canada to our CS300 family of operators as one of our largest customers and early adopters,” stated Bombardier Inc. president and CEO Alain Bellemare. “As an innovative operator, admired for successfully reinventing itself and, like Bombardier based in Québec, Air Canada and the C Series aircraft are a perfect match.”
The CS300 is a 135-seat entry in Bombardier’s new C Series narrow-body commercial aircraft for medium-range routes. The aircraft design incorporates advanced materials and aerodynamics, and twin Pratt & Whitney PurePower® PW1500G engines. While the new jets will compete with Boeing’s 737 series and the Airbus A320 series (among others), Bombardier has stated the C Series aircraft will offer “the best seat-mile cost in its category,” making it attractive for short-haul as well as transcontinental routes.
Bomardier has 370 total orders for C Series aircraft, 123 for the smaller (100 seats) CS100 jets and 247 for the CS300 jets. The first C Series commercial flight took place in May, a CS100 aircraft in service for Lufthansa Group’s Swiss Air subsidiary.
“Over the past few years, we’ve been making transformative moves to boost our competitiveness and customer satisfaction to better position us for growth and continued success. Finalizing the CS300 order is a key element to Air Canada’s strategy to build one of the world’s youngest and most fuel efficient fleets,” stated Air Canada president and CEO Calin Rovinescu.
“This order also will help establish a Centre of Excellence for C Series maintenance work in Québec,” Rovinescu said. Following a rigorous evaluation of its capabilities, we’re confident that the C Series aircraft’s superior range, economics and seating capacity will provide a stellar passenger experience and contribute significantly to our development plans to expand our network and increase point-to-point service to Canadian and transborder markets.”
Bombardier will begin deliveries of the new jets to Air in late 2019, and continuing to 2022.
