AIRBUS, THE NEW RIVAL OF EMBRAER
A quick and secretive movement. This way took place one of the most abrupt agreements in the aeronautical industry over the past decades. Airbus acquired more than half the shares of CSeries Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP), which controls the development, production and sales program of the CSeries of the Canadian Bombardier company. The business is expected to change the regional aviation market force balance when making the European group a direct competitor of EMBRAER.
The agreement foresees that Airbus and Bombardier will become partners In the CSeries project. Once the agreement is approved by European Union and Canada regulatory bodies, which is expected to happen in the second semester of 2018, the European conglomerate will assume 50.01% of the consortium, while Bombardier will have 31% of the shares and the government of the Province of Quebec, 19%.
For Bombardier, the contract represents an encouragement. With 18 months without getting orders, since the announce of the aircraft sale to Delta, which was questioned by the competitors, the project is affected by cost escalation and delays in its development. “This partnership would more than double the value of CSeries program, assuring a change in the game”, enthusiastically said Alain Bellemare, CEO of Bombardier, at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France.
PRODUCTION IN ALABAMA
It is expected that in the coming months, CSALP will start a full restructuration, provably including a move of part of the aircraft production. For the present, the agreement provides that the administrative headquarters of CSALP will remain in Quebec, with part of the production able to be transferred to Airbus industrial unit in Alabama, USA, as the order portfolio increases. The goal
