Bombardier has embarked on a European promotional tour of the CRJ900, in a bid to revive sales of its regional jet family.
The demonstrator (C-FHRK) has been shown off at London Stansted airport and Birmingham over the weekend as well as Belfast, home to Bombardier’s UK site, which is responsible for the manufacture of parts including fuselage and engine nacelle for the 90-seater.
The aircraft is also understood to be taking in Belgrade, Geneva and Nice this week where prospective customers are lined up. The aircraft left Canada prior to the Asian Aerospace air show in Singapore last month and has been flying demos en route.
The CRJ900 entered into service in 2003 and 59 have been ordered to date. However, the company only has an order backlog of 20 and is increasingly eager to book additional sales early this year. The Canadian airframer suspended its CSeries narrowbody airliner earlier this year and now the future of its aerospace business lies in the hands of the CRJ900, its smaller sister the CRJ700 and the Dash 8 Q400 high speed turboprop, says Trung Ngô, Bombardier vice president for marketing and communications for regional aircraft.
“The reason we’re placing so much effort into the [CRJ]900 is because that’s where we believe our sales are coming from in the next years,” he says.
One aspect that is hampering sales is the continued existence of airline pilot scope clauses, limiting the number of seats on regional jets operated by subsidiaries. Ngô says these clauses are steadily being reduced and he expects orders to flow in parallel. Iberia feeder carrier Air Nostrum has deployed a single CRJ900 in 89-seat all-economy class configuration on domestic Spanish routes from its Valencia base and is awaiting the outcome of talks with Spanish pilots’ unions before converting its existing order for 19 50-seat CRJ200s into an as-yet unannounced mix of 15 CRJ700 and CRJ900s.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / BELFAST
Source: Flight International
