Rendering: Flyaway Simulation
Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu continues to get questions about the airline’s decision to buy Bombardier’s CSeries and he continues to say there was no pressure from anyone.
“We think that is a very good airplane. We studied it for a very long period of time,” Rovinescu said during JP Morgan’s aviation, transportation and industrials conference on Tuesday.
He was asked directly if politics played a role in the decision to buy up to 75 aircraft, most of them the largest version of the aircraft, the CS300.
Bombardier has received more than $2 billion in investment from Quebec and is asking for $1 billion from the federal government.
It’s been speculated that Air Canada bought the airplanes at a steep discount and it’s hoped the order will inspire more orders from major airlines.
Rovinescu also said the CS300s will cost about 10 percent less per seat mile to operate than the Embraer 190s they will replace.
No deal has been formally signed but deliveries are slated to begin in 2019.