Bombardier Fullfills Target To Deliver Seven CSeries Deliveries In 2016

Bombardier made good on its goal to deliver seven CSeries aircraft in 2016, with the company delivering two aircraft in the last two days of the year, Bombardier confirms.

On 30 December, the company delivered a CS100 to Swiss International Airlines, and the delivery flight of a CS300 to Air Baltic departed Montreal on 31 December, Bombardier says.

The end-of-year deliveries mean Bombardier has met a revised goal to deliver seven of the new-generation aircraft during the year. Those seven aircraft include five CS100s to Swiss and two CS300s to Air Baltic.

Bombardier in September 2016 revised its CSeries delivery goal for the year from 15 to seven, citing production delays suffered by Pratt & Whitney, maker of the CSeries’ PW1500G geared-turbofans.

P&W has attributed its delays to production of the turbofans’ titanium-aluminium fan blades, which have an aluminium body bonded to a titanium leading edge.

Earlier generation P&W engines had hollow-titanium blades, but P&W switched to the lighter titanium-aluminium design because the geared-turbofan’s blades spin at one third the speed of blades on earlier engines.

Bombardier anticipates producing 30 to 35 CSeries in 2017, with production increasing to between 90 and 120 CSeries by 2020, the company said in December.