News
China’s CIB Leasing converts CRJ order to 90-seater Q400
September 7th 2018
Bombardier Commercial Aircraft and Industrial Bank Financial Leasing Co., Ltd (CIB Leasing) this week agreed to convert an order for 10 Bombardier CRJ Series aircraft to five 90-seater Q400 turboprops and five CRJ900 regional jets. Read More »
“As we work alongside CIB Leasing to explore market opportunities for regional fleet growth and network expansion in Asia, we are pleased to see that more 90-Seat Q400 turboprops will be available in the region,” said Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president, Fred Cromer. “With 15% lower costs per seat than the 78-seat version, our 90-seat turboprop aircraft have unique capabilities and unbeatable productivity. We are confident our leasing partner and potential operators will extract tremendous value from it.”
The converted purchase agreement, based on list prices, is valued at approximately US$420 million.
On August 1, Bombardier announced that it had achieved certification from Transport Canada for the 90-seater Q400, paving the way for delivery to launch customer SpiceJet later this year. The Indian LCC ordered 50 (25 firm orders and 25 options) of the high-capacity Q400s in 2017. Until this week’s CIB conversion SpiceJet was the only customer for the variant.
The 90-seat configuration is another step forward in Bombardier’s improvement of the Q400 and is aimed at addressing traffic growth and customers’ bottom lines. Improvements under development include a 2,000-lb increase in payload capacity and an escalation of the A-Check and C-Check intervals from 600/6,000 to 800/8,000 flight hours.
In July, the Canadian manufacturer announced a firm order for four CRJ900s from Uganda National Airlines Company, the OEM’s sole sale at the Farnborough International Air Show.
