Dubai: Canadian plane maker Bombardier is in talks with Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia Group over a deal to sell up to four CSeries aircraft to Petra Airlines.
Jordan’s Petra Airlines signed a letter of intent (LOI) in 2014 to purchase two CS100s and options to buy two CS300s, worth $298.4 million (Dh1.09 billion) if all four aircraft are ordered. But Air Arabia, who only flies Airbus A320s, purchased a 49 per cent stake in Petra Airlines this year, rebranding it Air Arabia Jordan.
John Kassis, Vice President, Middle East and Africa Sales for Commercial Aircraft at Bombardier, confirmed the Canadian plane maker is speaking with Air Arabia but declined to say how the talks are progressing.
“We are talking with Air Arabia,” he told reporters on Sunday at the Dubai Airshow.
Bombardier’s CSeries is a narrow body, single aisle, twin engine aircraft family currently under development. The CS100 seats 100 to 125 passengers and the CS300 seats between 130 and 160, competing with smaller aircraft built by global aerospace giants Airbus and Boeing.
But Bombardier has struggled with costs overruns in its development programme and was bailed out last month with a $1 billion cash injection from Canada’s Quebec provincial government.
Delays and confusion
The company has four firm customers in the Middle East; Abu Dhabi private jet charter Falcon Aviation Services, Gulf Air, Iraqi Airways and Saudi Gulf, a new airline planning to launch in Saudi Arabia. But the launch of Saudi Gulf has been marred with delays and confusion as the airline waits on its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) so that it can launch passenger flights. It is unclear when the airline will start flights and Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer declined to say whether there had been any changes in the delivery schedule for the 16 firm CS300s on order.
“No comment,” he said.
Bombardier confirmed on Sunday that Latvia’s AirBaltic will be the launch customer of the CS300 with its first aircraft to be delivered in the second half of 2016.
