break-even

ABSTRACT: Bombardier may have its CSeries launch customer in newly re-branded Lufthansa Group owned Swiss Global Air Lines which ‘should’ get the aircraft by 1Q/2016 ? at the earliest, while Bombardier desperately tries to ‘re-position’ the Q400 as a viable ATR-72-600 competitor with a “secret new technique” of slowing it down for better fuel economy and trip costs ?? the Q400 is $10 million more expensive, it uses 104% more power (shp), therefore it burns 40% more block fuel, engine maintenance is more expensive on PW150 than PW127 so how can it be economically close to the ATR which out sells the Q400 by a wide margin even with deep discounting on the Q400, meanwhile experts say the CSeries needs to be discounted by 50% to get the needed BIG airline orders as that is what BIG airlines expect, welcome to the BIG league Bombardier where huge discounts (30% to 50%) by Airbus and Boeing are the norm rather than the exception which can be up to 65%, and you can’t win a price war against Boeing or Airbus, can Bombardier even afford to heavily discount now that break-even has to be 580+ units as the CSeries program cost grows to $5.4 billion from an initial $3.4 billion and production is planned at only 10 per month ? break-even is now 6 years of production, can it afford NOT to discount with sales still stuck at a scant 243 “firm” orders (some highly questionable) after 6 years and NO major US airline order in sight ? meanwhile Lufthansa Group’s Austrian Airlines takes 17 x E195’s over CS100’s just like Air Canada kept its 25 x E190’s instead of buying the CSeries last summer, both after a thorough cost evaluation, so what gives with the economics of the CSeries ? Learjet without the Learjet 85 has little to offer, a sale of that company should be considered, the ‘good’ news is that Bombardier successfully raised $C 868 million in new equity and $C 2.25 billion in high yield debt to bolster its liquidity problem.

The news at Bombardier Inc. keeps getting worst, as this past week China’s locomotive manufacturers China CNR Corp. was acquired by China CSR Corp. in a $US 26 billion merger, creating a large state owned enterprise (SOE) that will surely give the 3 other large train manufacturers Siemens (Germany), Bombardier (Canada) and Alstom (France) lots … Continue reading →