Aggressively expanding XOJet announced an order with Bombardier this morning for 80 of the Canadian company’s super mid-size Challenger 300 business jets.
The deal is for 20 firm orders, worth $450 million, and 60 options that could raise the order value to $1.9 billion.
This is the largest Challenger 300 order in history and the first deliveries are set to begin in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008.
“If XOJet converts all its options, the total order value will be $1.9 billion,” says Jahid Fazal-Karim, senior vice-president sales.
Paul Touw, XOJet, chief executive, joked: “We want to convert them, but you [Bombardier] have to make those planes faster!”
He added: “We’re excited because this is an incredibly fast and large growing market. The total amount spent on travel a year is about $114 billion. Of that, business and corporate aviation is taking a 30% share. And that is figure is growing because of the continued stresses of commercial air travel. Business aviation is not a luxury any more, it’s becoming a necessity.”
Fazal-Karim adds: “We know the Challenger 300 is at the top of its class. Following an extensive evaluation of aircraft XOJet chose the Challenger 300 for its superior cabin comfort, reliability and performance. It is truly gratifying to have XOJet share our excitement and invest such confidence in the Challenger 300.”
XOJet is currently flying around 1,200h a year and Touw claims that XOJet is 40% cheaper than card programs, 30% cheaper than fractional ownership and a whole lot more economical than total ownership.
The company ordered 30 Citation Xs from Cessna yesterday.
Source: Flight Daily News
