Bombardier C-Séries (partie 1)

Vector a écrit:
C'est un avion sympathique et Bombardier aurait eu une bonne chance en le lançant 2 ans plus tôt.

Bombardier présente le poste de pilotage du Cseries

Bombardier a profité du salon du Bourget pour réveler de nouvelles images du poste de pilotage de son Cseries.

Le cockpit a été clairement retravaillé depuis la précédente édition du
Salon de Farnborough mais reste basé sur une avionique à 5 larges écrans
ACL à haute résolution de 38 cm de diagonale.

Notons que l'avionneur canadien opte pour le minimanche latéral et la solution avionique Pro Line Fusion de Rockwell Collins.

Robert Dewar, vice-président et directeur général, CSeries, Bombardier
Avions commerciaux a déclaré que « Bombardier a profité d’une occasion
très rare en développant les avions CSeries dès le début par une
conception entièrement nouvelle, non entravée par les besoins des
systèmes hérités d’un avion précédent ».

http://www.aerocontact.com/actualite_aeronautique_spatiale/ac-le-bourget-2011---bombardier-presente-le-poste-de-pilotage-du-cseries~12310.html

In an air show dominated by Airbus A320neo orders, Bombardier's CSeries announcements - that it has signed a firm pact with an undisclosed carrier for 10 CS100s plus six options and a tentative agreement with Korean Air for up to 30 CS300s - may seem like small beer.
To the Canadian airframer, however, the deals further underscore the fact that the Pratt & Whitney PurePower PW1500-powered CSeries is no longer a paper airplane and that the market segment at which it is targeted, the 100- to 149-seat small narrowbody category, is a niche that needs to be filled.
The awards also signal growing industry confidence in the programme, which has endured a fair amount of scepticism in the years since Bombardier formally launched the CSeries in mid-2008, and most especially in recent months as Airbus has racked up customers for the A320neo.
"Change is in the air," Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Gary Scott happily declared in Paris on announcing the Korean Air letter of intent, which includes firm orders for 10 CS300s, with options on another 10 and purchase rights for a further 10. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2015.
Scott's enthusiasm was shared by Korean Air senior vice-president for the corporate strategy and planning division, Walter Cho, who said: "The first 10 [are] going to be firmed right away, as soon as we get board approval, within the month. After that, I believe we have to firm our options two years prior to delivery date and I'm pretty sure we'll do it.

© Bombardier

"Additionally, we have our subsidiary low-cost carrier in Korea and they are in real need of aircraft soon, so we are looking into purchasing in their name to sub-lease to them for their use, and so 30 aircraft is not that much. We might have to order more soon."
Impressed with the CSeries' targeted fuel efficiency and "environmental friendliness", Cho went so far as to urge fellow SkyTeam alliance member Delta Air Lines to order the aircraft. Delta is studying its options for replacing an aging fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-80s.
"Delta is a very large airline and they are very good partners with us, and I know a little bit about their fleet and their route characteristics. They are operating hundreds of cities within the US and South America and this will be a perfect airplane for them because I believe they are looking at large quantities," said Cho.
The Korean Air executive also believes that the CSeries and A320neo can happily co-exist in a fleet.
"We looked into A320neos. I wouldn't say we selected [the CSeries] over the Neo. We're still looking into [the Neo]. But it's not in the same category in size. We're looking into larger A320s because they are a very good aircraft."
Bombardier's firm pact for 10 CS100s from an undisclosed customer, meanwhile, is also important in its own right. The operator is a "major network carrier", said Bombardier. Perhaps more significantly, the top-tier carrier has agreed to become Bombardier's launch operator for the CS100, which is expected to enter into service in 2013.
One possible dark cloud on the horizon is the tentative agreement from CSeries customer Republic Holdings for 40 Airbus A319neos powered by the CFM International Leap-X1A engine, rather than the Pratt & Whitney alternative. Bombardier insists Republic's CSeries order is still robust and that the CSeries and A319neo can co-exist.

For example, he says, the operating empty weight (OEW) for the 110-seat CS100 used to be 73,000lbs. "It will now be 73,500lbs."

The Bombardier executive touts the CSeries' short-runway capability. "The CS100 will do London City. It can fly from there and fly 1,400nm." The CS300 will not do London City, however.

Bombardier Inc.'s Series just might crack the ooming Indian air market ith a CSeries order there in he next month or two, The azette has learned.

In an interview at the Paris Air Show, Kaushik Khona, manager of India's GoAir, said that his low-cost carrier will decide by the end of July or early August whether to buy a raft of CSeries.

"It does meet our needs," Khona said.

"We've been discussing with Bombardier for the last four or five months, we've been to Montreal and visited their facilities, and we are still in discussion with them."

At an event announcing GoAir's purchase of 72 A320neo from Bombardier rival Airbus, Khona said there would be no conflict between the two aircraft types.

"India is a dynamic market and there are different types of length segments which can help the growth in the market."

GoAir is buying planes "not only for the metros (large cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta) but also to non-metros - Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. There, it makes sense to have a smaller aircraft. So we're evaluating those options."

But GoAir also is considering planes from other Bombardier competitors, Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA (Embraer) for its E-190 and E-170 jets, Europe's ATR for its 42-, 60and 72-seater turboprops and Bombardier itself for a possible purchase of Dash-8 Q400 70-seaters. While its purchase of smaller aircraft may not come close to its $6.6-billion U.S. Airbus 320neo order, the CSeries or other airplane type also could represent a major growth opportunity, said Khona, who is also vice-president of finance for the Wadia Group that owns GoAir.

"The A320s we have are deployed more or less on the very high growth markets, between metros where traffic is growing by 18 or 20 per cent each year. Between Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, it is growing by 15 per cent. So that's why there is an option for (the CSeries) possibility."

That would represent the first time an operator used the A320neo and CSeries alongside each other.

The A320neo is a larger aircraft, but Airbus and Bombardier are engaged in a brutal media and market battle deriding each other's planes.

Khona said his company likes what it's seen of the CSeries, but "the only thing is that the neo has a better height and (overhead) storage space. On the other hand, the CSeries doesn't have three-plus-three seating for better passenger comfort. So there are always pluses and minuses."

"And the CSeries is not as big as the neo, so obviously it has a different utilization. So we're on the job."

With just over six per cent market share, Go Air is the smallest discount carrier in India's booming airline industry, competing with much bigger Indigo and SpiceJet, but analysts say it can expect growth of 20 per cent this year after Khona and Giorgio De Roni took the reins of the airline.

De Roni became CEO of GoAir last week and was for 10 years at the helm of Italian carrier Air One, until 2008.

Bombardier : le CSeries est-il mort et enterré ?

L'A320 NEO va-t-il tuer dans l'œuf la gamme de moyen-courriers CSeries (CS100 et CS300, photo Bombardier) du canadien Bombardier ? Quand on lui posait la question début juin, le président d'Airbus Tom Enders, fidèle à son style brut de décoffrage, assurait à Challenges que « cela va certainement être le cas et c'est fait pour ». Même assurance au moment de commenter l'accord entre Bombardier et le chinois Comac : « Je ne connais pas les motivations de mon collègue Pierre Beaudoin (président de Bombardier, NDLR), il faudra lui demander, répondait Tom Enders. Je lui souhaite bonne chance ! »

Le salon du Bourget à peine clos, le bilan est éloquent : l'A320 NEO a atteint 1029 commandes en sept mois, quand le CSeries, après trois ans de commercialisation, plafonne à 123 commandes fermes, 109 options et une lettre d'intention de Korean pour 30 exemplaires. « Si c'était mon programme, je penserais à le redessiner ou à le laisser tomber », assénait le directeur commercial d'Airbus, John Leahy, en marge de la conférence de presse Airbus.

Gary Scott, président de l'aviation commerciale chez Bombardier, préfère voir le verre à moitié plein : « Nous avons vendu tous les créneaux de livraison pour 2014, il reste quelques slots pour 2015. Nous avons ajouté cinq nouveaux clients à notre portefeuille durant le mois de juin.»

Les clients, avérés ou potentiels, rencontrés par Challenges lors du salon du Bourget assurent pour l'instant maintenir leur confiance au CSeries. « Nous sommes toujours intéressés, nous avons juste reporté la décision », assurait Akbar Al-Baker, patron de Qatar Airways. Idem chez Lufthansa : « Ce sera un avion compétitif, qui le sera encore plus dans ses versions rallongées, assurait Nico Buchholz, directeur de la flotte. Bombardier aura réussi son coup s'il réussit à avoir beaucoup de clients, pas forcément avec des gros chiffres de commandes. C'est bien parti. »

Le problème, c'est que certains clients Bombardier sont aussi très tentés par le NEO. L'américain Republic (40 commande de CSeries) a signé une lettre d'intention au Bourget pour 40 A320 NEO et 40 A319NEO, rival direct du CSeries, dont il serait le client de lancement. Tout l'enjeu pour Bombardier va donc être de confirmer ses commandes et options, et de prouver au marché que sa gamme est plus efficace que l'A319NEO, qui bénéficie de la redoutable puissance de frappe commerciale d'Airbus, notamment concernant la maintenance. John Leahy, lui, n'y croit pas du tout : « Le pire des cas pour Bombardier, c'est d'arriver à 150 commandes : vous êtes obligés de poursuivre le programme pour livrer les clients, mais vous n'avez aucun moyen d'atteindre la rentabilité, par manque de contrats. »

D'où l'idée avancée par l'analyste américain Richard Aboulafia : vendre la division avions commerciaux de Bombardier aux Chinois. Qui, eux, ne manquent pas de moyens financiers...