SHORTS, the Belfast aerospace company, stands to benefit from a £90 million sterling order placed with its parent company Bombardier by the French airline Air Littoral. The order is for seven Canadair Regional Jets, with options for a further five.
The Belfast company makes the 32 foot central fuselage section of the aircraft, the forward and aft extension plugs, wing flaps, and spoilers. Air Littoral was the first French airline to place an order for the 50 seater jet, and already has seven in service.
The company plans to use the aircraft from its new hub in Nice, and to additional destinations in Spain and Italy.
News of the order comes just a week after Shorts announced that Bombardier's plans for a 70 seater version of the Canadair CRJ-X was likely to lead to the creation of 600 new jobs in Belfast.
The company, will also benefit from a £300 million deal signed by Rolls Royce with the United Arab Emirates, involving the supply of aircraft engines for its new fleet of Airbus 330-200 aircraft.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)