At one time there was Canadair — then De Havilland (Canada) — both merged to become Bombardier Aerospace. Then, the innovative CSeries airliner emerged to challenge the two giants Airbus and Boeing. Unfortunately, Bombardier suffered from financial teething troubles coupled with new engine problems that was especially developed for the airframe by Pratt & Whitney, not to mention WTO threats from Boeing (Aerospace 17) .
Finally, Airbus SE stepped in to buy a 51% share of Bombardier’s CSeries division (Bombardier continuing with total control of other aircraft divisions, e.g., Q-400, and CRJ, etc.).
Now, under control of Airbus, the aircraft titles C-100 and C-300 have been changed to A220-100 and A220-300 respectively.
It is going to be an interesting time, from now onwards, to see if this will have an affect for future sales. It is quite evident that the A319 will eventually concede to the superiority of the A220-100, a position with which it shares.
Today, an MOU for 60 A220-300 aircraft was signed by a group of investors led by the CEO of JetBlue for a planned new airline, so far unnamed (The rumour says ‘Moxy’).
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