Bombardier admits to being ‘overwhelmed’ by number of new aircraft programs

Bombardier’s president and CEO Alain Bellemare has said that the company was ‘overwhelmed by the number of programs’ it was working on.

As well as working on new aircraft, including the C Series, LearJet 85 and Global 7000 / 8000, the company has also been working making upgrades to existing models, including the Challenger 350 (now completed) and the Challenger 650.

Bellemare made the comments during the company’s Q3 2015 Investor Relations call.

During the call the company announced that the government of Quebec has taken a $1 billion stake in the C Series commercial airliner, as well as the official cancellation of the LearJet 85.

Cancelling the LearJet 85, which the company had put on hold earlier in the year, has cost the company $2.6 billion, including a $1.2 billion write down in the third quarter.

“So the organization was overwhelmed by the number of programs.”

“I mean we add like multiple programs running in parallel and that was very challenging for an organization of our size so we add the Lear 85, we were improving our existing Challenger 300 and 605, we add the C Series 100, 300, we add like Global 7000, 8000.” said Bellemare, “So the organization was overwhelmed by the number of programs.”

Cancelling the LearJet 85 means that the company can redeploy resources to both the C Series airliners, and the upcoming Global 7000 / 8000.

Both aircraft programs have suffered delays, with the first of the new Global family, the Global 7000, now due to enter service in the second half of 2018.