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Bombardier eyeing emerging markets

DUBAI - Bombardier Aerospace plans to focus emerging markets for its new C-series of jets, top executives said at the Dubai Airshow on Sunday.

The Canadian aircraft manufacturer is still on track to launch its C-series in 2012 despite tough conditions, they added.

More than 50 per cent of the company’s order backlog of 262 belong to markets outside North America and Western Europe, Bombardier’s senior vice-president for sales Chet Fuller said.

In a bid to come closer to its clients Bombardier is increasing commercial aircraft sales and marketing support to the Middle East and Africa.

“This new sales and marketing office will further extend our global presence and provide closer proximity to current customers and prospects in the Middle East and Africa,” said Raphael Haddad, senior director for Middle East and North Africa sales at Bombardier Commercial Aircraft.

“We will be able to provide an almost instant response to any requests for information on our Q-Series, CRJ and CSeries aircraft families,” Haddad added.

The Middle East continues to offer the potential to play a key role in the transformation of the aviation industry. Bombardier’s 2011-2030 market forecast predicts that while starting from a small base, the Middle East and Africa will capture seven per cent, or 980 of the 13,100 worldwide deliveries expected in the 20- to 149-seat market segment.

“Aviation is a major industry in the region and although the spotlight to date has been on the long-range and widebody fleets, there remains a tremendous potential for growth in intra-regional and domestic services throughout Africa and the Middle East,” said Philippe Poutissou, vice-president for marketing at Bombardier Commercial Aircraft.

“Our Q-Series and CRJ aircraft fleets in the region already serve a wide range of air transport needs including resource industry charters, short- and medium-haul hub feed and point-to-point airline service.”

“Including aircraft on firm order, the fleet in the region includes more than 180 Dash-8/Q-Series and CRJ aircraft. As the airlines in the region continue to grow, we anticipate that they will also seek efficient single-aisle, mainline aircraft such as Bombardier’s CSeries family of airliners to expand their networks.”

Each of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft’s distinct families is optimised for its respective markets. The 68- to 80-seat Q400 NextGen aircraft is the optimised turboprop solution for short- and medium-range markets. The 70- to 100-seat CRJ NextGen aircraft are the optimised regional jetliner solution. And the all-new, game-changing CSeries aircraft are the optimised single-aisle, mainline solution for the 100- to 149-seat market.

Separately, Bombardier announced that a full-scale flight deck demonstrator for the all-new CSeries aircraft is making its world debut at the Dubai Airshow. Visitors to the Bombardier CSeriesaircraft dome will experience first-hand the most advanced flight deck demonstrator in the industry.

“The all-new design of the CSeriesaircraft flight deck benefits from the latest avionics technology and will set the new standard,” said Robert Dewar, vice-president and general manager for CSeries at Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “The CSeries aircraft flight deck features a number of state-of-the-art communication and navigation aids, developed with the future in mind. Our integrated design approach offers reduced costs through increased operational efficiency and reduced pilot training, while improving reliability. The result is a finely tuned human-machine interface, which the demonstrator allows visitors to experience.”

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com