BOMBARDIER’S BELFAST plant is celebrating the Canadian aerospace giant’s first billion-dollar order for a new series of jets which it will help build.
Bombardier has confirmed that Deutsche Lufthansa AG has signed a firm purchase agreement for 30 CSeries aircraft.
The Belfast plant will design and manufacture the advanced composite wings for the CSeries family of aircraft which will go into service in 2013.
Based on the current list price, the Lufthansa order is valued at approximately $1.53 billion (€1.2 billion).
The agreement with Lufthansa gives it options on an additional 30 CSeries aircraft.
Michael Ryan, vice-president of Bombardier Aerospace in Belfast, has described the new order as “very good news” for the Canadian group’s Northern Ireland operations.
“We currently have around 300 engineers involved in considerable research and development of the high-technology wings and the process to make them. Some 800 jobs will be generated when the programme is at full production after 2014.”
Details of the new CSeries aircraft were first unveiled by Bombardier last July.
