Well, every C series airframe sold is a blow to both Airbus and Boeing. Not to mention Embraer and Mitsubishi. What applies to one also applies to the others.
That's not true Willie.
First of all, obviously sales of CS100 don't directly affect either Airbus or Boeing. Even when we look at the CS300, it only competes with the smallest offering from the B737 / A320 family, not the "bread and butter" 150+ passenger single aisle lines.
So what we have is an asymmetric situation.
Imagine a hypothetical deal that's coming down to a head-to-head between Boeing MAX 7 and Bombardier CS300:
If Bombardier wins CS300 orders, that might mean some lost MAX 7 sales to Boeing. But Boeing never expected a ton of MAX 7 sales anyway. The vast majority of profits will come from MAX 8s and MAX 9s.
MAX 7 is where Boeing makes the least amount of money. The overall impact to Boeing of this loss would be marginal.
The flip side is very different. If Boeing wins new MAX 7 orders (or even -700 orders), that hits Bombardier where it hurts most: lost CS300 sales.
CS300 is where Bombardier makes the most money. The overall impact to Bombardier of this loss is huge; every order makes a big difference to them.
There's also the relative financial strengths between the two companies, differences in their product portfolios, and where they are in their product cycles.
Boeing has
thousands of 737 MAX orders in their backlog. Boeing is in a prime position financially, and can afford to lose a deal or two. And they have older models (like 737-700s) which can be offered for cheap, with near zero impact to Boeing's bottom line.
Bombardier's situation is very different. They are in a mountain of debt. Without a CS500, they don't have a deep product portfolio to offer. They currently need hundreds of millions in subsidy money just to win each sale.
So again, the loss of
any sales to Bombardier is a huge blow to them, as compared to loss of sales to Boeing or Airbus.
That's why if Boeing introduces a MAX 7X, they can make life very difficult to Bombardier. Boeing
doesn't need to sell many 7Xs. It would be a marginal product to Boeing. But every 7X sale vs. the CS300 will heavily impact Bombardier, and will reduce Bombardier's capacity to launch a CS500.