$30m
was cheap. When Pierre Beaudoin still ran the show, he would never have sold the CS300 for that price. Then the Delta deal completely reset expectations on how big of a loss Bombardier was willing to take.
Also remember that Air Canada received some "non-monetary" subsidies as part of the deal, like a
court case being withdrawn by Quebec and
favorable amendments to Federal legislation. Those changes / subsidies were worth millions to Air Canada and hid the "true cost" of the CS300 deal.
Some references:
Globe & Mail:
The order came at a steep price for Bombardier. Industry sources said they believe Air Canada will pay just $30-million (U.S.) each for the planes, a discount of almost 60 per cent from the list price of $72.4-million. Bombardier also announced layoffs of 7,000 employees in Canada and other worldwide locations over the next two years.
The Economist:
Until Air Canada announced the purchase of up to 75 of the plane’s larger CS300 variant, on February 17th, there had been no orders since 2014.
It will be a long haul before Bombardier recoups its costs on the project, says Bjorn Fehrm at Leeham Company, an aviation consultant. The first 15 planes produced this year will cost Bombardier $60m each to make, he says, but will sell for just $30m or so.