A History of the Bombardier C-Series(A220)

The Bombardier C-Series(now A220) has had a long history. Today at Simple Aviation, we've decided to give you its history and future in a nutshell!

The world needed something else to challenge the 737, E175 and a320 in the 2000s. Bombardier saw this and grabbed the opportunity by its throat.

Bombardier spent 7 years toiling, coming out with a fuel-efficient, long range plane that would reduce prices for airlines drastically. As orders started coming in from Europe, Bombardier was happy. Bring in the 'Big 3'. The Big 3 are America's 3 largest airlines(Delta, United and American). All 3 airlines had a member of the 737 family, a320 family or both. None of them, however, had ordered an a220.

Bombardier decided to offer 75 a220s to Delta for just 20 million dollars. This startup story can be compared to that of the a300. If one of the big 3 approved, Bombardier was sure to have orders skyrocketing.

The thing was, Bombardier was losing money for each aircraft it was building. An a220 costs 30 million US dollars to make.

Boeing caught onto this, and filed a dumping petition. Bombardier was already losing money, and the last thing it would want to happen was for its business to be shut down all together.

The US Trade of Commerce asked Boeing for a similar plane, and Boeing presented the 737. However, Delta had already repeated that it had lost interest in the 737.

The US Trade of Commerce stepped in once again and charged Bombardier to ship their planes into the US. 

Later, Airbus bought a 50.01% stake in the C-Series programme and rebranded the plane to the A220. Many a220s are still manufactured in Mobile, Alabama, to avoid that tax!