Bombardier today confirmed significant performance improvements for its CSeries airliners, which are making their long-awaited debut at the Paris Air Show this week. At a press conference here at Le Bourget tomorrow morning, the Canadian airframer is expected to give details of how the aircraft are exceeding promised performance during flight testing, which is now around 65-percent complete.
For the larger CS300, the enhanced efficiency translates into an additional 350 nm of range, pushing it to 3,300 nm. An airline might also want to convert this into an extra 15 passengers for a given range, but the maximum seating capacity remains at 160. Compared to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max, the CSeries will have a 10-percent advantage in fuel consumption, according to Bombardier.
“We had good surprises on the airframe side, notably on aerodynamics,” Colin Bole, Bombardier’s senior vice president for sales and asset management, told reporters at the show site on Sunday. He would not elaborate on the performance of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engines, beyond saying that they are “as least as good” as expected.
Bole still anticipates the CS100 will be certified by year-end. The CS300 will follow by six months. The CSeries program has suffered from a two-year delay due to various complications, including problems with the engines.
At the start of Paris 2015, the CSeries has an order backlog of 243 airplanes and Bombardier is aiming to hit its sales target of 300 orders by the time the CS100 achieves certification. Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s new president, Fred Cromer, played down expectations that this week’s show will bring new orders. “It’s just five days like any other five days of the year,” he reflected.
Reaching that mark might prove more difficult than one might expect, however, if Russian leasing group Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) cannot find suitable financing for the 32 airplanes it has on order. Sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation of Crimea, and alleged backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine, have effectively disqualified Russian companies from Canadian export credit agency financing.
Swiss International Airlines, which this spring committed to becoming the airplane’s first operator, is expected to take delivery some time in the first half of next year. The European carrier holds the key to proving the operating capabilities of the CSeries in revenue service, and perhaps to unlocking the sales potential it carries.
The CS300 will open the flying display here in Paris at 1:30 p.m. every day.