Bombardier lands €500m orders for Belfast division

BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE has landed firm orders for 10 business jets worth nearly $500 million which will secure production lines in Belfast.

The orders will be warmly welcomed by its Northern Ireland division which employs more than 5,000 people across four plants.

Bombardier’s factories in the North play a key role in the Canadian group’s high performance business jet programmes.

The Canadian aerospace group said Swiss-based VistaJet had ordered four Global Express XRS aircraft and two Challenger 605 jets. The total value of the deal is about $277 million, based on 2010 list prices. Bombardier has also won new orders for four Global Express XRS jets from undisclosed customers based in Russia which are worth some $213 million.

Details of the contracts were disclosed at the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain yesterday where Bombardier also confirmed it had received two orders from Qatar Airways in March for two Global 5000 aircraft, valued at $90 million.

Although the new orders will not result in the creation of further jobs in Northern Ireland they will help to sustain and safeguard existing positions. Components including fuselages, engine nacelles, stabilisers and tail cones and wing units are manufactured in Belfast for the Global business jet family. Its Northern Ireland workforce is also responsible for the manufacture of key components including fuselages and nacelles for the Challenger 605 corporate aircraft range.

There had been strong industry speculation that Bombardier would use the Farnborough Airshow, the aviation industry’s major tradeshow, as a platform to discuss the order pipeline for its new C-Series commercial jetliner programme.

But the Canadian group has simply said the C-Series programme, which will generate 800 jobs in Northern Ireland once it is in full production, is continuing to move forward.

The Belfast operation is responsible for the design, manufacture and integration of the complete wing for the C-Series aircraft

Since the C-Series aircraft programme was launched two years ago, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for 33 CS100 and 57 CS300 aircraft, there are also options on 90 additional aircraft.

Production of the CSeries aircraft wings is due to get under way in Belfast in early 2011 in a new purpose-built factory which is currently under construction.