Bombardier has replaced another top commercial aircraft executive amidst a broader corporate reshuffling in the wake of CSeries development delays .
Philippe Poutissou, former vice-president of marketing, has left the company, says a Bombardier spokesman.
Poutissou has been replaced by Ross Mitchell, a former vice-president of sales for Bombardier commercial aircraft in Europe. Mitchell inherits a wider role as the new vice-president of business acquisition, to include marketing, communications and programme strategy, a Bombardier spokesman says.
The leadership change was first reported by FliegerFaust, a blog focused on CSeries programme news.
Last month, Bombardier announced a broader restructure. The company removed Guy Hachey, former chief of Bombardier Aerospace. The Bombardier Aerospace segment was broken into three standalone business units – commercial aircraft, business jets and aerostructures and engineering services.
Poutissou’s departure comes less than a year after his former associate, Chet Fuller, left the company. Fuller, formerly Bombardier’s top salesman for commercial aircraft, was replaced by Raymond Jones.
The reshuffling in Bombardier’s executive ranks coincides with CSeries development problems.
The flight test fleet remains grounded since an engine failure occurred during a 29 May ground test.
In late July, Bombardier chief executive Pierre Beaudoin said the company still had questions about Pratt & Whitney’s proposed fixes for the oil system problems that caused the PW1500G geared turbofan to fail.
Bombardier is still in discussion with P&W about the engine design changes, a spokesman says. The timeline for return to flight is still described by Bombardier as the “coming weeks”, a refrain that has been repeated almost since the grounding began on 29 May.
The CSeries entered flight testing on 16 September last year. Four aircraft released to the flight test team collected about 300 flight hours before the 29 May grounding.
Bombardier still plans to deliver the first CSeries aircraft to launch operator Malmo Aviation in the second half of 2015.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
