Bombardier Aerospace has signed a purchase agreement with GE Capital Aviation Services in a deal which could eventually be worth almost $4 billion (€4.2 billion).
It involves the sale of up to 150 CRJ aircraft, consisting of 50 firm aircraft orders plus 100 options. A substantial section of the fuselage, wing components and engine nacelles will be built at the Belfast Shorts plant.
The value of the firm orders is estimated at $1.3 billion. Deliveries begin in 2002 and continue until late 2006. When all options are executed, the total value will be $3.9 billion. Since Bombardier launched the 50-seat passenger jet in 1992, the company has built around 400 aircraft for customers worldwide.
The new 70-seater CRJ700 is due to go into service early next year and, if final approval is given for its production, the CRJ 900 will appear towards the end of 2002.
Shorts spokesman Mr Alex McRitchie said the orders indicated the success of the family of 50- and 70-seater regional jet aircraft, production of which is being increased from 100 to 150 a year.
Mr McRitchie said: "They meet an increasing demand from major airlines in that they are capable of carrying a smaller number of passengers very economically and efficiently over the same sort of distance as large commercial airliners. They are ideal for routes which don't carry large numbers of passengers at any one time."
The deal follows the announcement of a £70 million sterling (€111 million) investment by Bombardier Aerospace at its Belfast base two weeks ago, which will create 1,200 jobs. Bombardier executive Mr Mike Graff said it was a major endorsement of the quality and competitiveness of its Northern Ireland operations.
"Facilities and technology in Northern Ireland are world class," Mr Graff said. "Our employees here are helping our company compete successfully in a very demanding market, so the decision to place more of the manufacturing load on Belfast was logical and natural."
Recruitment for the jobs has already begun. When completed, it will take employment at Shorts to 7,200, its highest level since the second World War. Another 250 jobs will be created at companies supplying Shorts, such as Maydown Precision Engineering in Derry.
Production at all four of Shorts' Belfast plants - in Dunmurry, Newtownards, Newtownabbey and on the Airport Road - is being increased to record levels.
Over the last nine years, Bombardier has invested more than £900 million in its Belfast operation. Mr Ken Brundle, executive vice-president of operations at Bombardier, said the Belfast workforce had "earned the right" to the investment. "This expansion of our operations, and the new manufacturing responsibilities, is a strong endorsement of our Northern Ireland operation, and a clear expression of confidence in our people."
Bombardier's £70 million investment, and the increase in production likely to result from the latest orders, marks yet another stage in a dramatic turnaround for Shorts.
In 1988, its last year under state ownership, the company lost more than £47 million. The following year it was sold to Bombardier, and has returned healthy profits in each of the last nine years.
When Bombardier took control of Shorts, around one third of the latter's business was military. It manufactured the Tucano jet trainer, and small regional turboprop aircraft such as the Shorts 360.
Now, as part of the Bombardier group, it specialises in the design and manufacture of individual components, such as fuselages, engine nacelles and advanced composites.
Around half the 6,200 workforce of Shorts is now employed directly on Bombardier work. The rest is employed on contract work for some of the world's biggest aerospace companies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The company also constructs engine nacelles for Rolls Royce, Pratt and Witney, and General Electric.
But the company's biggest expansion has been based on the growing market for regional jets. In the past decade, Bombardier has delivered more than 400 of these planes, and has orders and options for another 600. Over the next three years, regional jet production will increase by 60 per cent.
Bombardier has also established a strong presence in the market for business jets.
