Bombardier and Air Canada say they have finalized a firm purchase agreement consistent with the Letter of Intent (LOI) announced in February 2016. The purchase agreement includes a firm order for 45 CS300 aircraft and options for an additional 30 CS300 aircraft.

“I’m pleased to officially welcome Air Canada to our CS300 family of operators as one of our largest customers and early adopters,” said Alain Bellemare, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc. “As an innovative operator, admired for successfully reinventing itself and, like Bombardier based in Québec, Air Canada and the C Series aircraft are a perfect match.

Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare described the order as “a major statement of support for Canada’s aerospace industry” as well as a catalyst for future orders.

Deliveries are scheduled to begin in late 2019 and extend to 2022. At list price, the firm order for 45 CS300 aircraft is valued at approximately $3.8bn. This amount would increase to $6.3bn should Air Canada exercise all 30 option aircraft. 

The Air Canada order confirmation comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Bombardier had entered into a definitive agreement for the previously announced $1bn investment by the Government of Quebec in a newly created limited partnership, the C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP), to which the assets, liabilities and obligations of the C Series aircraft programme will be transferred. The company hopes to secure an additional $1bn in funding from the federal government.

The CS100 is due to enter service with launch customer Swiss on July 15.