Well – that didn’t take long to get a family photo out after the Bombardier and Airbus announcement last night – where Airbus is to take a 50.01% ownership in the C Series Programme.
Earlier today, a formal photo was released from Airbus the happy family all together (and a plane sent to Toulouse to get the photo):
From left to right, members of both Bombardier and Airbus are present in the photo
- Pierre Beaudoin, Bombardier Chairman of the board
- Tom Enders, Airbus CEO
- Alain Bellemare, Bombardier President & CEO
- Fabrice Brégier, Airbus COO & President of Airbus Commercial Aircraft
The repercussions of yesterdays announcement are still settling in, which in theory should allow for tariff-free C Series aircraft to be built in Mobile, AL.
In many respects, the A318 and A319 families are dead in the water – as Airbus/Bombardier can scale from 100 seat CS100, 130 seat CS300, to the larger scale A320neo and A321neo (and thus save money on those projects which have got very thin order books).
As for Boeing… can they actually compete with this new family – or will they have to partner with another airframer to offer family coverage from the smallest jet, up the largest?
Once again – the aviation industry proves we live in interesting times…
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