Republic Airways orders 80 CSeries Aircrafts

[Eric Diffoot]

CSeries Lands North American Launch Customer


Feb 25, 2010

By Andrew Compart [email protected]

Republic Airways signed a deal to buy up to 80 Bombardier CS300 jets, becoming the North American launch customer for the manufacturer’s CSeries aircraft. The order announced this morning is for the purchase of 40 of the aircraft, with options for 40 more, with first deliveries in the second quarter of 2015. Bombardier said the list price of the deal is $3.06 billion for the first 40, and approximately $6.34 billion if all the options are exercised, but neither Bombardier nor Republic are saying how much the airline actually is paying. Republic will get the aircraft in a single cabin, two-by-three configuration with 138 seats, including 25 “Stretch” seats with extra room. The aircraft will be powered by Pratt and Whitney PW1000G engines. On a conference call on its fourth quarter earnings today, Republic executives praised the CS300 as an aircraft with “game-changing technology” that will give them more flexibility in their operations, although they did not delve into strategic details for the aircraft’s deployment. In a Bombardier press release, Republic Airways Chairman, President and CEO Bryan Bedford said the aircraft “will give us a major competitive cost advantage and complement our future growth and development plans,” citing in part its fuel efficiency and passenger space. Republic owns Frontier and Midwest, two scheduled service carriers that are operationally based in Denver and Milwaukee, and operates fixed-fee service under contract with major carriers under the major carrier’s brands. Frontier operates Airbus A320-series aircraft, while most of Midwest’s services are on Republic-operated Embraer 170 and 190 aircraft. The Frontier and Midwest operations are becoming increasingly integrated, however, with network-wide code sharing, some fleet sharing, and plans for commonality in their onboard service offerings this year. Since launching the CSeries family of aircraft at the Farnborough Air Show in July 2008, Bombardier has recorded firm orders for a total of 90 of them. That includes a firm order from Lufthansa for 30 CS100 aircraft, and one from Lease Corporation International Group for 17 CS300 and three CS100 aircraft. The program has also booked options for an additional 90 CSeries aircraft. Bombardier said the aircraft will be 20% more fuel efficient, deliver 15% lower cash operating costs and emit 20% less carbon dioxide and 50% less nitrogen oxide than in-production aircraft of similar size. Artist's concept: Bombardier http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/awx/2010/02/25/awx_02_25_2010_p0-207655.xml&headline=CSeries%20Lands%20North%20American%20Launch%20Customer&channel=comm Great news to hear about more orders for the CSeries program. It'll be interesting to see what Republic plans to do with all the aircrafts they are committing to and what plans they have for Midwest and Frontier, merge the two airlines maybe?

[djarfur]

Awesome news for Bombardier and the CSeries program! I believe this will get the ball rolling and we will see more orders by the end of the year. It's good to be Canadian

[TAP-A343]

This is certainly a welcome boost to the CSeries programme.

[DAL767-400ER]

Looks like the A320s at F9 might be on the way out, seeing as how 40 firm orders would be way too much for expansion, and the C-Series can't be operated for other carriers due to the scope clauses.