Feb 02 2012

Garuda Indonesia order of CRJ1000s Imminent

Garuda IndonesiaIt has been rumored that Garuda Indonesia is about to confirm an order for Bombardier CRJ1000 regional jets in the near future, possibly  at the Singapore Airshow this February.

The airline had been undertaking a study of both the Bombardier CRJ1000 and Embraer 190 aircraft to fill a requirement for 18 regional jet aircraft with less than 100 seats since the beginning of 2011.

Sources indicated that the airline chose the Bombardier CRJ100 a few weeks ago and the airline intends to make a public announcement shortly.

The decision, if correct, would be a major victory for Bombardier, who has been lagging behind its Brazilian rival in the regional jet market in recent times. Bombardier in 2011 had a net order increase for only four of its CRJ series of aircraft, while the backlog fell to 52 aircraft. Embraer was attempting  to secure a deal with Garuda after Indonesian carrier Sriwijaya placed a firm order for 20 Embraer 190s in 2011.

Bombardier’s push for the sale included a demonstration CRJ700 which arrived in Jakarta in August 2011 for flight demonstrations. Bombardier  has the smaller CRJ700 and CRJ900 in its portfolio, and did offer them to Garuda, but the airline’s preference is believed to be for the CRJ1000.

According to sources, the aircraft will be based at four Garuda hubs: Balikpapan, Denpasar, Ujung Pandang and Makassar, to support the mainline carrier’s services.

Jan 23 2012

Bombardier delivers 78 commerical aircraft in 2011, gains 54 orders

Bombardier_logoBombardier Aerospace announced its deliveries and orders results for 2011 today.

For the 11-month period ended December 31, 2011, Bombardier delivered 245 aircraft and received 249 aircraft orders, net of cancellations.

Bombardier delivered 163 business jets and  received 191 orders for business jets. It delivered 78 commercial aircraft, and received 54 orders for commercial aircraft as well. Finally, the company delivered 4 amphibious aircraft and took four orders as well.

According to the company’s news release, this was within the guidance the company issued at the beginning of 2011.

Jan 20 2012

Estonian Air changes its mind and leaves Bombardier for Embraer

Estonian Air LogoEstonian Air has received permission from the Estonian ministry of economy to replace new Bombardier CRJ 900 NextGen aircraft the airline acquired recently with aircraft built by Embraer.

It has been less than a year since the airline took delivery of the CRJ 900NGs as a replacement aircraft for its SAAB turboprop aircraft. The airline had announced that it was in negotiations with Bombardier for a further purchase of three aircraft as well.

However, according to press reports, negotiations were stalled over pricing and the airline looked towards Embraer to supply the aircraft it requires.

The airline has announced that it will be leasing three Embraer 170 aircraft from an undisclosed European airline to replace the CRJ 900NGs as a stop gap measure. The airline then intends to take delivery as soon as possible of three Embraer 190s directly from the manufacturer.

 

Jan 20 2012

Gulf Air aircraft order in question with Bombardier

The future for Gulf Air’s regional jet order has become murky in the past few days as a tender award, previously indicating the purchase of Bombardier’s CSeries aircraft has changed.

The airline appears to be instead leasing regional jets from GECAS under a new tender revealed recently. In an April 2011, the Bahraini government tender board released a document which had an item that indicated a $328 million contract award to Bombardier for Gulf Air regional jets. However that now has been removed and replaced by a similar note, dated October 2011, indicating that GECAS will supply four regional jets as interim aircraft for the airline.

The aircraft to be supplied is not noted, but the document does note that the lease will be for three years. The award also carries a similar reference code as the earlier Bombardier purchase line item had.

Gulf Air is currently operating Embraer 170 aircraft leased from other leasing companies. Disclosure of the earlier Bombardier contract strongly suggested that Gulf Air had selected the CSeries over the Embraer E-Jet family to meet its long-term regional jet requirement, and an order confirmation had been expected during this week’s Bahrain air show.

Gulf Air announced yesterday that it had not scheduled any announcement at the show, nor was it planning to in the near future.