ALTHOUGH it started life making snowmobiles, Bombardier’s main businesses these days are building corporate jets, smallish “regional” jets for airlines, and trains. The Canadian firm has long dreamed, however, of breaking the stranglehold that Boeing and Airbus enjoy in full-sized commercial airliners. For 11 years it has been spending heavily on developing the CSeries, a 100- to 149-seater to compete with the slightly larger Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
However, like so many new aircraft, the CSeries has slipped behind schedule and gone over budget. Orders are weak. And the family-controlled firm’s other businesses, which have been footing the bill for the work on the new plane, are struggling. There are worries that the CSeries will never be a commercial success—and that Bombardier might even run out of cash before the plane turns a profit.
On May 14th Bombardier said it would cut production of the Global 5000 and 6000, its largest and most profitable corporate jets, with the loss of 1,750 jobs. Russian and Chinese tycoons are feeling the pinch, or are shopping with rivals...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1R6GYBy
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