Bombardier Upbeat, Tight-Lipped

"We had a fantastic year last year on the business aircraft side, with more than a dozen new aircraft sales in the Asia/Pacific region where no other company is as strong in the corporate market," a Bombardier spokesman said on the show's opening yesterday. He said the Canadian company would be disclosing a number of sales during the week but declined to be specific in advance of formal press conferences.

The regional aircraft side of the business had had a "very good" year too, and Bombardier holds a particularly strong position in China, the spokesman said.

Details of Flexjet Asia, a variant of the Flexjet fractional plan stressing charters instead of shared ownership, will be disclosed here Wednesday.

By Bob Rodwell