The C Series is a technical 'tour de force', for sure, but not for technology's sake. The technology addresses all the drivers Clunck talks about: purchase price, Direct Operating Costs, maintenance cost, not to mention cabin comfort, payload range, airfield performance, low emissions, etc, etc, where it is miles ahead of its competitors.
We will see it..... Frankly I do have some doubts. First issue is the purchase price. As long as BBD is not able to compete with the rest of the market, the will have problems. That point was covered in an interview with an city jet executive. They decided to purchase the Suchoi Superjet 100. Second point are the Operating cost. Adding a new manufacturer to the fleet means increasing overall costs. Training of the maintenance crew, spare parts, crew training etc. Another issue is the wramp up of the production. The rumor is that BBD will reach break even with 800 firm orders. BBD will lose 32 Million USD on every C-Series which the will deliver during the next 2 years. Critical analyst predict that this number will be more in the range of 45 Mio. USD/Aircraft.
Airbus and Boeing will try to kick BBD out in every project where they compete. That means, the price of the aircraft is the crucial point. Also we should not forget that there are also other players in the market which will fight for every aircraft. As we all know, BBD isn't a cash cow at the moment. Unfortunate their other products do not contribute enough cash to subsidize the C-Series. As a matter of fact, the need to invest a bunch of bucks and R&D time into the CRJ series which is not longer competitive against the Embraers E-Series. Also on the Global-front the lost the market to Gulfstream.
BBD lost control on the C-Series timing and cost. Now they have to deal with weak revenues, a significant R&D backlog and high program cost on the C-Series.
At least an interesting challenge for the CEO......
