Originally Posted by
Ben_S
Unlikely. The MD80 was already years old at that point. This is a new beast and supposedly good so it's not going to be binned off any time soon.
The MD-95/717 wasn't even certified at the time of the Boeing/MacDac 'merger' (legacy Boeing people have a different, less polite term) - it was a brand new product (which admittedly had roots in the 1960s). Boeing basically didn't believe that the long term market justified the continued investment to keep the 717 production viable. It's not exactly inconceivable that Airbus will come to the same conclusion about the C-Series.
The biggest advantage to the C-series that Airbus brings is their world-wide customer support network and some economies of scale (i.e. AB has more leverage to force lower prices out of the suppliers).
Flight deck commonality and common type rating is not going to happen - it would be cost prohibitive (think $billions) to make the C-Series flight deck like an A320 - it's just not something you can "retrofit" into an existing design - even the FBW control laws would need to be redone.
Airbus is basically in a no-lose situation - they don't have any real skin in the game. If the naysayers are wrong and the C-Series is a commercial success, they stand to make lots of money. If the C-Series continues to lose money hand over fist in excess of what the Bombardier and the Canadian Government have already agreed to cover, they can just shut it down with no real loss since the real AB investment is minimal.