Bombardier is making its AIX debut, showcasing the capabilities of its newly in-service CSeries with the first cabin mock-up of its production aircraft.
The Canadian airframer’s appearance at Hamburg comes nine months after the first CS100 went into operation with Swiss and follows the larger CS300’s service entry with Air Baltic in December.
However, despite the CSeries being the first all-new narrowbody for a generation, Bombardier faces a tough battle to establish the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G-powered type in a segment dominated by Airbus and Boeing.
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“We thought this was the right time for us to join the [AIX] fray,” says Colin Bole, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s senior vice-president, commercial. “The CSeries is the first new cross-section for 30 years and what we are bringing in terms of cabin comfort is significant.”
Among the CSeries’ features Bombardier will be promoting at AIX are its 19in-wide seats, which Bole says represent “an industry first, even including widebodies”.
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With “very wide aisles and very large windows”, he adds, “the amount of light at 35,000ft is quite extraordinary. It makes for a very different experience.” Other attributes include “large pivoting bins”, which Bombardier claims provide the highest volume of baggage space on a single-aisle aircraft.
The mock-up on show at AIX has four rows of seats and, while Bombardier has displayed cabin concepts at air shows before, this is the first “true representation of a production-standard aircraft”, says Bole.
With just seven CS100 and CS300 examples in service so far, it is “critical for us to demonstrate the cabin to industry decision-makers”, he says. “Not many have had the opportunity to experience it first hand. I’d love to take them up for a flight, but this is our chance to get some exposure for the cabin.”
Bombardier puts its long absence from AIX down to the fact that the event has traditionally focused on single-aisle and widebody aircraft, whereas the manufacturer has until recently had only regional types in service. “Now we have a narrowbody product, there is more reason for us to be here,” says Bole.
However, the Montreal-based airframer will also be giving a platform to its smaller aircraft at Hamburg, with a virtual reality demonstrator of the new CRJ cabin, which was launched last year.
“It’s a significant evolution,” says Bole. “We listened to our direct as well as our indirect customers – passengers – and brought in a number of enhancements, with a brighter entrance area, a significantly larger forward lav for mobility-impaired customers, and an enhanced overall cabin appeal with trim and lighting.”
In addition, larger storage bins at the front of the cabin, where there is generally a three-abreast seating pattern, allow standard roller bags to be stored lengthways, rather than sideways, as is usual on a regional aircraft.
Bole says the launch customer for the CRJ variant will be announced “in due course”.
Bombardier will also “continue to emphasise” at AIX the high-density version of its Q400, which seats up to 90 passengers and is, says Bole, “by far the largest turboprop on the market”. Two Asian airlines – Nok Air and Philippine Airlines – already fly Q400s with 86 seats.
“I expect we could have a customer or several [for the 90-seater] during 2017,” says Bole. “We will have availability in the second half of 2018.”
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Source: Flight Daily News
