Bombardier is now officially floating the idea of a corporate version of its CSeries airliner. In an interview with the Globe and Mail at NBAA last week, Rodney Williams, VP of marketing for Bombardier Business Jets, said there is interest in the airplane. “We have had demand from customers who have asked us to look at [it],” he said. The airplane would compete directly with the Embraer Lineage 1000 and SuperJet and might also be an alternative to Boeing Business Jets based on the 737 and Airbus’s A318/319 corporate offerings. The musing comes as the CSeries airliner, which has struggled for orders, is now in a time crunch.
Bombardier spokeswoman Haley Dunne told the Globe the overall project could come close to the wire in terms of on-time deliveries of the first aircraft. Bombardier has targeted 2013 for the introduction of the aircraft to service. “We’ve built the timeline to be able to mitigate any risks that might pop up. Right now we’re at the point in the program where we’ve gone through a lot of contingencies,” said Dunne. She also said the company is confident it will hit the mark.
