Bombardier says it will have secured some 300 orders for the CSeries by the time the new twinjet enters into service in 2013.
Speaking today at the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Gary Scott said: "Rest assured that we will add significantly to our current numbers this year and we will begin to add to these numbers soon.
"I am confident that we will have at a minimum the same number of orders that the [Airbus] A320 had when it went into service."
Scott says Airbus had orders for 300 A320s when the aircraft entered service.
Bombardier's CSeries portfolio includes the 110-seat CS100 and the 130-seat CS300, which in highest-density configuration can seat 149 passengers. To date the Canadian airframer has secured firm orders for 90 CSeries plus 90 options with a total three customers.
Some industry observers believe Bombardier should add a 150-seat, single-class CS500 with 32in pitch to its CSeries family to compete head-on with Airbus and Boeing in the 150-seat-plus market.
But Scott says adamantly that Bombardier has no intention of adding a CS500 to the family. Technically, Bombardier could stretch the CSeries, but the manufacturer is "leaving above 150 [seats] to Boeing and Airbus", says Scott, adding: "They can fight it out and they can take on China and Russia and so many others that want to go into that market segment. We just have no interest in that."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
