The Bombardier C-Series is coming... Who will order it in the US beyond Republic?

[Heavy Set]

Here is the latest picture:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Bombardier/Bombardier-BD-500-1A10-CSeries/2306145/L/

Having flown several Bombardier products I am a big fan of the design. Certainly has a better ramp presence than the Embraer 175/190. This CS100 is also the smaller version - the CS300 with up to 150 seats will follow one year from now (neither has been flown yet) unless they have further delays.

Obviously hope it is ultimately flown by legacy pilots if anyone orders it. Republic currently has something like 30-40 CS100s on order but I am not sure how they would use them under current scope restrictions. At one point I thought Frontier was the intended recipient but not now...

 

[trip]

It will be great aircraft with better quality than the E series jets, the price is what will kill it.

 

[johnsonrod]

It will be great aircraft with better quality than the E series jets, the price is what will kill it.

That's what big volume orders are all about - right?

Plus, Bombardier "claims" the C-Series with its new engines will be 20% more efficient than the Embraer, Airbus and Boeing competitors (smaller end of the seating scale like the A319 & 737-700) which could help with the aircraft buying analysis. People forget the cost includes both the financing cost and the operating cost. We are also talking about 2 versions - the 100-120 seat CS100 and the 130-150 seat CS300. Not sure what the end price would be for either if someone committed to a large order number...

That said, it has to fly first.... Until it actually does its first test flight (due to happen shortly but delayed several times) none of the efficiency predictions matter....

 

[Jetjockey]

My guess UAL will order them and fly them.

 

[FLYLOW22]

Big airplane for a regional order.

Where will they fly that?

 

[atpcliff]

It won't affect Boeing at first, because Boeing has all but abandoned the market for airplanes with less than 150 seats. They should have kept the MD-9x line open...

Later, when the "C" is expanded to 150-200 seats, then they will start chewing into Boeing's market. I can't believe that Boeing is planning on selling the almost-50 year old 737 decades into the future....it is a very old design and will not compete well.....and the small Airbus design is getting pretty old, too.