Bombardier has agreed a partnership with Shenyang Aircraft (SAC) which will see manufacture of Dash 8 Q400 fuselages switched to China, with an option to supply for the proposed CSeries.
Executives from Bombardier, SAC and its parent-company China Aviation Industries I (AVIC I) signed the deal at Farnborough on Tuesday, significantly building on an existing partnership dating back to the 1980s.
SAC already supplies Bombardier with doors on the Dash 8 Q300, and from 2008, SAC will start supplying the aft and forward fuselages of the larger Q400, a component currently manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
SAC president Li Fangyong says: “The contract on the Q400 is the result of long discussion on CSeries previously.” He says the Chinese manufacturer hopes the deal is “a foundation for future discussion on CSeries”.
Bombardier president and chief operating officer Pierre Beaudoin confirms that a partnership agreement had been forged with SAC on the CSeries several months ago but was never announced because the programme was shelved in January 2006.
Bombardier confirms it is still studying the CSeries but declines to provide a timeframe on a launch decision. However it remains confident SAC and other suppliers secured for the CSeries last year will participate if and when the programme is relaunched. “The suppliers are still committed,” Beaudoin says.
AVIC I senior vice president Hu Wenming says the CSeries deal with SAC includes support from the Shenyang city and the Linyang provincial governments.
He declinesto say if the federal government had also agreed to provide financial support but insists there is no overlap between AVIC I’s ARJ21 large regional jet programme and the CSeries.
“We don’t see conflict between ARJ21 and CSeries,” Hu says, claiming the CSeries will seat 130 passengers. The initial ARJ21-700 will seat 90 passengers and is scheduled to enter service in late 2009.
Beaudoin says today’s contract with SAC on the Q400 is “a milestone in a relationship which began 15 years ago and which has grown stronger in recent years”. Japanese firm MHI was reportedly looking to offload its work on the Q400 to other Asian manufacturers to concentrate on Boeing 787 wing production.
Bombardier vice president for engineering and supply chain Jean Séguin said Bombardier and MHI have since negotiated an end to their relationship on the Q400. He said: “It was a mutual agreement because of capacity constraints at MHI which presented this great opportunity for SAC.”
Bombardier also hopes the deal with SAC will lead to the first Q400 sale in China. Chinese carriers have traditionally been reluctant to buy Western-made turboprops because of a high import tax and a negative perception among Chinese passengers towards turboprops.
Beaudoin says: “This is a first step in showing Bombardier’s commitment in China. We think there is a big turboprop market in China.”
Source: Flight Daily News
