Page 17 - AAA JULY - AUGUST 2014 Online Magazine

FEATURE BOMBARDIER

bombardier’s cseries airliner is in development costs plus $300M of
an ambitious attempt by the Canadian capitalized interest to be spent until the
company to design and build a clean sheet entry-into-service of the CS300. This
aeroplane to corner a substantial portion would take total development costs for the
of the 100-149 seat single aisle market. airplane to $4.4B.
The target segment is a gap that exists However, matters now hinge on the
between the highest capacity regional jets, successful completion of the flight test
typically carrying about 80 passengers programme and Entry into Service (EIS)
and entry level single aisle offerings from in the second half of next year, getting
Boeing and Airbus starting from 124- the CSeries into the hands of eager
125 seats but typically seating 140-156 customers. This is crucial for obtaining
passengers in single class configuration. more orders for the aircraft, as it will
This is the market Bombardier is offer potential customers the chance
gunning for with its CSeries family, to observe its performance in service,
comprising of the 110-125 seat CS100, before committing to an all new type. The
now due to enter service in the second four CSeries Flight Test Vehicle’s (FTV)
half of 2015 and the 135-160 seat CS 300 in the flight test program, have together
due to follow in 2016. accumulated approximately 330 flight test
Bombardier’s Brazilian rival Embraer hours.
has chosen not to directly compete with Unfortunately, the flight test
Boeing and Airbus, choosing instead to programme received a setback in May
offer its 2nd generation E-190-E2 with a after an incident with Pratt & Whitney’s
maximum of 106 seats in a single class geared turbofan, grounded the test
configuration, increasing to 132 seats for fleet. Sebastien Mullot CSeries Program
the E-195-E2 Director at Bombardier Aerospace, told
Going ahead with a clean sheet design Asian Airlines & Airports that “The primary
is risky, expensive and time consuming, focus is to identify the root cause and get
especially if delays get out of hand. While the aircraft back to flight test.” “The plan
Bombardier seems to have handled is to increase the number of flight hours
the design and development of a brand and also finalise the expansion of the
new airplane exceptionally well, it has flight envelope.” he adds. Engine-ground
been expensive and time consuming, runs on CSeries FTV were restarted in
with scheduled dates for service entry Mirabel, Québec in June.
having slipped by a year. As of December “Now that we have a good
31, 2013, the CSeries tooling balance understanding of what happened, a
was at $3.3 Billion with another, $750M procedure is in place that introduces

The CSeries is decades
ahead of the competition.
However, in service
performance is the true
test and will be keenly
watched by airlines
WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM JULY / AUGUST 2014 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS 17