Bombardier C Series

Bombardier CSeries, a new competitor in the mid range market. Do Airbus and Boeing need to worry? The narrow body mid range market is a very lucrative segment dominated by the Boeing 737, Airbus a318-21 series and Embraer's 170-195. Airlines rarely choose a new manufacturer when renovating their aircraft, for example, if an airline has always used Boeing, it would be costly to switch (or integrate to their existing fleet) an Airbus, because training, maintenance and other costs will have built economies of scale within the airline and a change will take time, resources, etc. Having said that, a number of airlines traditionally working with a single manufacturer(or at least a preferred one) have been forced to integrate other manufacturer's airplanes to their fleet when merging with another airline. So the question is, are there many airlines interested in integrating a new narrow body 110-135 seater to their existing fleets? The answer might be the new Bombardier C Series with its CS-100 and CS-300. Bombardier already has its successful Bombardier CRJ regional jet series, which include six variants from 50 to 100 seats. The CRJ 100-200 series (50 seaters) has been popular with regional airlines for short haul routes, while the CRJ 700 series has also been successful with regional and full service airlines on feeder flights. The company has learned about the "entry level" of the mid range market with its CRJ-90071000, which offers better performance and profit than the Embraer 190. The C Series gives Bombardier the opportunity to compete with Boeing and Airbus for the first time, but the project didn't have an easy start. In 2006 the company decided to cancel the project as it didn't have enough orders. Some months later they reverted that decision and went ahead with the program after securing letters of interest from Lufthansa. The new airplane made it's maiden flight in September 2013 and is expected to be delivered in 2014. Bombardier claims it's new series has a 20% improvement in fuel efficiency compared to its competitors from Airbus and Boeing, but the two big manufacturers have the power of containing the C Series' development offering aggressive discounts to existing customers who would think of switching to Bombardier's option. Good luck to Bombardier, we are looking forward to seeing the C Series in the sky!