PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Certification and production issues have set back production of the 70-seater aircraft
Bombardier is struggling to catch up with deliveries of new CRJ700 regional jets scheduled to be completed this year. The manufacturer has had to overcome a series of certification and production related issues that have conspired to delay the handover of aircraft, in some cases, by up to six months.
The Canadian manufacturer is due to deliver 29 CRJ700s by the end of its first full year of production, having earlier throttled back from a planned goal of up to 35 jets. Bombardier as of a month ago had delivered just eight 70-seaters, three to launch customer Brit Air, three to Horizon and two to Lufthansa CityLine.
Bombardier has suffered several problems, including a six-month delay in US Federal Aviation Administration certification as the result of flight data recorder and flight control computer faults. It was also hit by prolonged certification of the company's new Mirabel plant to which CRJ700 production was transferred from Dorval over the summer.
Lufthansa CityLine, which is in the process of accepting another two aircraft, has raised the issue of cabin excitation as the result of engine harmonics while running at idle. This has not yet affected deliveries and General Electric is understood to be looking at modifying the CF34-8C turbofan's rotor damper and seals to alter sound characteristics.
American Eagle is scheduled to be next to receive the CRJ700 this month. The American Airlines subsidiary confirms its delivery schedule is running "a couple of months" behind schedule and that service entry is targeted for early next year after it has received a further two aircraft. American Eagle adds that in view of the economic situation the "delay is not necessarily a bad thing".
Horizon has been among the worst affected with delivery of its 11 remaining aircraft not now due to be completed before April, four months behind schedule. Bombardier has asked Delta Connection carrier Comair to defer by six months delivery of its first CRJ700 until May next year (Flight International, 28 August-3 September).
Bombardier is not alone in its delivery problems. Rival Embraer has had to postpone at least two ERJ-145 deliveries to Continental Express and British Regional Airlines resulting in customer ferry crews having to return home.
The company has blamed the delay on "export documentation bureaucracy" and claims the issue should be resolved by this week.
Source: Flight International
