Canada’s aviation giant Bombardier was expected to unveil its CSeries, a fuel-sipping “greener” rival to smaller aircraft made by industry leaders Airbus and Boeing, yesterday in Britain, local media said on Saturday.
Bombardier, a leading manufacturer in railway equipment and the third largest global builder of airplanes, is looking to deliver a model that consumes 20 percent less fuel, thanks to a new motor style and lighter composite materials, Canada’s La Presse reported.
The CSeries twin-engine aircraft seats 110 to 130 people, and would compete with Airbus’ A319 (125 seats) and Boeing’s B737-600 and 700 (110 to 130 seats).
“The Farnborough [Britain] air show officially does not open until Monday [today] but Bombardier is in the habit of making its big announcements on the eve of a show opening,” the Montreal paper’s aeronautics expert wrote.
OFF THE BACK BURNER
The company put the CSeries project on hold in May 2006, after it had been in the works for a decade, but relaunched the process last year once it appeared that rising fuel costs would ignite demand for a more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Jacques Kavafian, an analyst at Research Capital, wrote this week that “identified potential customers now include China Southern, Shanghai Airlines, Lufthansa, ILFC, and Qatar Airways.”
China Southern and Shanghai Airlines could be the main clients for the test phase of the aircraft, and have already ordered around 100 CSeries aircraft, which are available beginning in 2013.
“Interest [in the Cseries] is indeed out there,” Bombardier spokesman March Duchesne said, without providing any confirmation of the release plans.
BIG AND SMALL
Bombardier projects that after the initial production run of 100 to 150 planes, as many as 6,300 could be manufactured in the coming 20 years.
The CSeries “will be the biggest among the regional carriers or the smallest among the big airlines,” said Isabelle Dostaler, an aeronautics industry expert at Concordia University.
“That’s what worried some, ‘Why awaken the sleeping giants?’ But at the same time, Boeing and Airbus are busy with other things at the moment with their new projects. That’s the thinking,” she said.
Bombardier is later on the scene than its Brazilian rival, Embraer, which launched a 108 to 118 seat plane in 2004 as part of its E170/190 line.
The market is ruled by Europe’s Airbus and the US’ Boeing, but their A319 and B737-600 and 700 are considered aging models.
Bombardier says it will require US$2.5 billion in initial investment funds, and hopes to share the bill with the British, Canadian and Quebec governments as well as with front-end suppliers.
Potential manufacturing sites include the US state of Missouri and Mirabel, on the outskirts of Montreal.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS