Bombardier Chief Bullish on Business Jet Market

While Bombardier’s business jet delivery guidance for 2018 is flat at 135 units, company president and CEO Alain Bellemare is optimistic about the segment and is prepared to increase production volumes “if the market supports it,” he told financial analysts recently. He described the business jet market sentiment as “positive,” with the company seeing increased sales in the fourth quarter—a trend he said has continued thus far this year.

“[This] will be a pivotal year for Bombardier,” Bellemare said. “We are moving out of our investment cycle and into a strong growth cycle.” He said that one of the largest contributors to this growth is the Global 7000, which is set to enter service later this year and has a three-year backlog of orders. Overall business jet backlog stood at $14 billion at year-end, down from $15.4 billion at the end of 2016.

The 140 business jet deliveries last year at Bombardier Aerospace were up five units from the company’s 2017 outlook, but fell 16.4 percent from the 163 jets it shipped in 2016. Last year’s shipments included 56 Challenger 350s, 45 Global 5000/6000s, 23 Challenger 650s, 14 Learjet 70/75s, and two Challenger 850s. In 2016, the mix was 62 Challenger 350s, 51 Globals, 26 Challenger 605/650s, and 24 Learjets.