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FARNBOROUGH, England (AFP) - With record oil prices crippling airlines worldwide, Canadian planemaker Bombardier said here Sunday it planned to launch its eco-friendly CSeries single-aisle passenger jet in 2013. German carrier Lufthansa has signed a letter saying it was interested in buying 30 CSeries jets and possibly up to 60, Bombardier said in a statement. Launch customer Lufthansa could be followed by other airlines after Bombardier said it had received "significant interest" worldwide regarding the new plane. "The CSeries family offers the greenest single-aisle aircraft in its class," said Gary Scott, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. "These game-changing aircraft emit...

Pratt & Whitney confirms its GTF geared turbofan has been selected to power Bombardier’s CSeries small airliner. A decision on launching the 110/130-seat CSeries is planned for 2008, for entry into service in 2013. Bombardier revealed at the Dubai show that it is working exclusively with P&W to power the CSeries. “We have reached agreement on the technical and business terms,” confirms Tom Pelland, P&W’s director, next generation products. The GTF has already been selected to power the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, with a launch decision expected at the end of March 2008. The 70/90-seat MRJ is also scheduled to enter...

German investigators are to examine an Augsburg Airways Bombardier Q400 which landed at Munich today with its nose-gear retracted, after turning back from a service to Florence. The aircraft was operating a Lufthansa Regional connection on the Munich-Florence route on behalf of the German Star Alliance carrier. Local reports state that the crew discovered that the nose-wheel could not be deployed as the turboprop started its approach to the Italian city. It returned to Munich in order to make use of the longer runway. Munich’s parallel runways are 4,000m compared with the relatively short 1,688m strip at Florence. None of...

ERLANGER, Ky. (AP) -- The fatal crash of a Comair regional jet Sunday morning dealt an emotional blow to a commuter airline trying to emerge from bankruptcy. "These are tough things and it's very difficult," Comair president Don Bornhorst said at a briefing in a hotel near Comair headquarters in northern Kentucky. Choking up at times, Bornhorst said he was "emotionally devastated" and said he's certain all of Comair's 6,400 employees share those feelings. Bornhorst, a 15-year aviation industry veteran, pledged that the carrier would do all it could to help with the investigation of the crash while also keeping...

Pinnacle Probe Finding the cause of an accident often leads to a cure--and the ongoing probe of Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 is highlighting the need for enhanced high-altitude training and safety management programs at regional airlines. Those shortcomings came to the fore during the NTSB's June 13-15 hearing that aimed to gather more information about the events leading to the Oct. 14, 2004, crash of a Bombardier CL600-2B19 (a.k.a. CRJ200) regional jet that resulted in the deaths of the two pilots on board. The board's findings show that on that date Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, operating as Northwest Airlink, departed...

Activist Scales Hotel with Tibetan Flag and Calls on Bombardier to Leave Tibet International Campaign for Tibet[Wednesday, June 08, 2005 10:07] Activists Say Rail Contract Facilitates Cultural Genocide Tibetan protester being driven over by a mock Bombardier train. Montreal – As Bombardier executives and shareholders left their annual general meeting at the Sheraton today, a student hung a Tibetan flag off the hotel as protesters below demanded: “Bombardier: hors du Tibet / out of Tibet”. The action was intended to draw attention to a campaign against Bombardier for its involvement in a highly contentious railway being built through Tibet....

The United States has warned that it is going to proceed “promptly” with a World Trade Organization (WTO) subsidy case against the European Union (EU) unless the Europeans change their position on aid for the development of new Airbus aircraft. Testifying May 25 before a House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said that a negotiated agreement on ending so-called launch aid and other trade-distorting aircraft subsidies would be preferable to litigation. But he added that the Bush administration is “fully prepared” to move forward with the 2004 WTO case and believes it has...

For decades, Boeing looked over its shoulder disdainfully at Airbus. In recent years, Boeing has been in the wake turbulence of Airbus. Today, Boeing better be looking over its shoulder again, this time at Canada's Bombardier. With the announcement on March 16 that Bombardier will produce a 110-130-seat jetliner, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer is moving into the big leagues. Bombardier has long been a successful manufacturer of turboprops and regional jets, all but inventing the latter market. The 110-130-seat market puts Bombardier at the lower end of the big-jet marketplace dominated by Boeing and Airbus. Bombardier plans to seek government...

Boating enthusiasts, I need a bit of help. I saw a commercial for the new Evinrude E-Tec outboard motor on Sunday, and they advertised a web site where you could get a coupon for up to $1,000 off one of their new motors. I assumed that rather than writing down the web site I could simply go to the Evinrude/Bombardier web site and find it later, when looking it up was more convenient. After visiting the Evinrude web page I've discovered that I should have taken a moment to write down the web URL they advertised, because I cannot find...

BANGKOK - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has dismissed reports that his government recklessly misspent millions of taxpayers dollars. According to Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report, the Chrétien government misspent $100 million on Bombardier jets, spent money on advertising firms with Liberal connections and misused money for partisan polling. Some of the findings of Fraser's next report, which isn't due until late next month, were leaked to The Globe and Mail on the weekend. Meeting with reporters at the APEC summit in Bangkok, Chrétien said he doesn't comment on leaks but defended the purchase of the jets. "We wanted to have...

FAA Grounds All Learjet Model 45 Business Jets By Don Phillips Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 12, 2003; 4:50 PM The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the immediate grounding of all 222 Learjet Model 45 business jets after discovering that a part in the tail section can fail abruptly, possibly leading to a loss of control of the airplane. The grounding is a blow to Learjet owner Bombardier of Montreal, whose stock was already undergoing a pounding in recent months. It was also a blow to Bombardier subsidiary Flexjets, one of three major competitors to Warren Buffett's business jet fractional...

Embraer today announced an order from JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) for 100 EMBRAER 190 airliners with deliveries starting in the third quarter of 2005. The airline also took options on 100 additional EMBRAER 190s. The total value of the firm contract at list price is US$ 3 billion, with a potential value of more than US$ 6 billion if all options are converted. With this order, JetBlue becomes the launch customer for this model of the EMBRAER 170/190 family of airliners. JetBlue will outfit the aircraft with 100 leather seats, four abreast at 32-inch pitch with its signature DIRECTV satellite...

Bombardier lands major contract Bombardier Inc. said Monday it has struck a deal with Arlington, Va.-based US Airways Group Inc. for the sale of as many as 275 regional aircraft with a potential value of $10.4-billion

MONTREAL (CP) - Canada's Bombardier Inc. will roll out this week - in Washington - a jet engine-powered locomotive it has been quietly developing for years in partnership with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration. Bombardier believes its 240-kilometres-an-hour JetTrain is the answer to providing high-speed rail service throughout North America using existing track and without the prohibitive cost of electrifying rail networks. It calls JetTrain the first high-speed, non-electric locomotive designed for the North American market. It uses a turbine engine to generate power, instead of the diesel engine used in nearly all locomotives in North America for the past...