Bombardier yesterday received orders for six Canadair Regional Jets - five from Montpellier, France-based Air Littoral, and one from Air Adria, of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The French order, for five Series 100 machines, will take the airline's fleet of the 50-seat aircraft to 19.
Deliveries of its Series 100s are expected to start towards the end of this year and continue through 1999.
Air Littoral operates routes throughout France, Germany, Spain and Italy and president Marc Dufour describes the Canadair aircraft as "one of the key elements in our growth".
It has a letter of intent for five of the larger Series 700 aircraft.
Value of the order is approximately $100 million.
Adria's order for a single aircraft - a Series 200LR - is the conversion of a previously-held option.
The operator ordered two Series 200LRs and took options on a further two in March last year.
Delivery of the new aircraft is scheduled for November this year. Adria will operate it in 48-seat configuration.
Competitor
Bombardier's 70-78-seat Series 700 is due to enter airline service in the fourth quarter of 2000.
Asked how the proposed 80-seat version of Boeing's new 717 might affect sales of the Canadian aircraft, John Giraudy, senior vice-president, Bombardier Aerospace Regional Aircraft, says: "If it's launched, it will be a competitor, but it's a heavier aircraft and burns more fuel than the Series 700." Of Bombardier's Dash 8Q Series 400, which flew for the first time on 31 January, Giraudy says the aircraft has now completed 11 flights and a total of 24 hours in the air. It is due to fly to the group's flight test centre at Wichita, Kansas, later this week where it will be joined by three further machines in a 1,500-hour test programme prior to service entry in the first quarter of 1999. Bombardier (Chalet D25/26) clocked up sales of 44 Dash 8s and 160 Regional Jets last year and Giraudy says the company is aiming to achieve 180-200 sales this year. Historically, some 50% of production goes to North America, 20-25% to Europe, 10-15% to Asia-Pacific and the remainder to the rest of the world.
Source: Flight Daily News
