Bombardier is still working hard to secure Lion Air as a customer, though it would not be drawn into discussions about how confident it is of an order coming through from the carrier.
“All I can tell you is there are a lot of discussions. We’ve had meetings with Lion Air and we’d be very honoured and proud if they would look at our aircraft,” says Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s president Mike Arcamone in an interview at the Singapore air show.
He says the Indonesian carrier has been “buying a lot of aircraft”, and that the airframer hopes to be in a position to continue discussions when the carrier decides to look at smaller narrowbodies.
Arcamone adds that Lion representatives have visited the airframer’s assembly facility in Montreal, and were “very enthused” with the CSeries.
“If there’s a need for a 100-150 seat aircraft, I’m convinced they’ll look at Bombardier,” says Arcamone, adding that the airframer has a full sales force based in Indonesia.
Last month, Lion Air president director Rusdi Kirana hinted that talks with Bombardier on the CSeries have slowed down. He declined to say if delays in the CSeries’ schedule have slowed discussions.
Last October, Kirana said that the airline would finalise an order for the CS300 by end-2013, adding that any order would be in the double-digit range.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
