CRJ700 Debuts at Farnborough

Making its international air show debut at Farnborough is Bombardier's 70-seat Canadair CRJ700 Regional Jet in the colors of launch customer Brit Air, of Morlaix, France. It is due to enter service there in the first quarter of next year.

Orders for the CRJ700 total 104 firm sales even before it has entered service. Options could run as high as another 500, as major regional airlines have signed deals for hundreds of aircraft that will let them select from Bombardier's range of regional jets.

Bombardier rolled out the $25.3-million aircraft at its headquarters at Montreal's Dorval International Airport on May 28.

Robert Gillespie, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, noted the CRJ700's nearest competitors, the Fairchild Dornier 728JET and Embraer ERJ170, will not enter service until 2002.
"If they accomplish that, we will have delivered just about 90 airplanes by the time they deliver their first airplanes," Gillespie said.

Bombardier expects the world market for 70-passenger jets to total more than 1,500 aircraft, or some $38 billion, over the next 20 years. It has delivered more than 300 of the 50-seat version of the Canadair Regional Jet and has a backlog of over 250 orders.

Bombardier said it cost $440 million to develop the 70-seat Regional Jet. That included $59 million of repayable financing from the Canadian government's Technology Partnerships Canada program.
The CRJ700 is a stretched version of the 50-seat model.

By John Morris