Friday, January 15, 2016

Canada's answer to Boeing could be in for another blow

Bombardier's quest to right its financial ship may be about to take another blow.

The aviation giant had reportedly been in talks with United Airlines about a 30-aircraft order for its widely praised, but slow selling, C-Series airliner.

Unfortunately for Bombardier, it looks as if Boeing and its 737-700 will end up taking home the $2 billion order sheet, Reuters reports.

Industry sources told Reuters that Boeing's ability to offer a slightly larger aircraft and greater discounts gave it the edge over Bombardier.

With that said, it's not quite a done deal. Boeing and United are said to be in final negotiations, so things may yet change.

Boeing declined to comment on the reported deal. A United representative told Business Insider the airline did "not discuss its future fleet plans."

Bombardier, which recently filed a request for further financial assistance from the Canadian government, is in desperate need for a headline-grabbing deal with a major airline to inject some new life into the C-Series project.

The Canadian airplane maker has been fighting to recover from a tough 2015 in which the company was forced to write down $4.4 billion and take a $1.3 billion bailout.

One of the linchpins to Bombardier's turnaround strategy is to revive sales of the C-Series. The company has gone more than a year without registering a new order for its flagship product.

Though the C-Series is expected to enter service later this year with Swiss Global Air Lines, Bombardier still does not have an order from a major North American carrier. Bombardier hoped a United deal would be the one to right the ship. But not all hope is lost: Bombardier is said to also be in talks with JetBlue over a potential C-Series order.

(Benjamin Zhang - Business Insider)

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