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Bombardier’s all-new CSeries narrowbody airliner will now not enter serve until the second half of 2015.
At the time of the CSeries first flight, on September 16 last year, Bombardier was planning on first deliveries about 12 months later, but it said in a statement released on Thursday that: “The flight test phase will require more time than originally anticipated to ensure, amongst other things, that the aircraft has the overall system maturity to support a successful entry-into-service.”
Bombardier says the larger CS300 will enter service “approximately” six months after the CS100, which suggests an early 2016 timeframe.
“We are taking the required time to ensure a flawless entry-into-service. We are very pleased that no major design changes have been identified, this gives us confidence that we will meet our performance targets,” said Bombardier Commercial Aircraft president Mike Arcamone.
The second flight test CSeries, FTV2, made its first flight on January 3.
In better news for the program, Saudi Arabia-based Al Qahtani Aviation Company has signed a firm purchase agreement for 16 CS300s with options for an additional 10. With that deal Bombardiers says CSeries orders and commitments stand at 445, including 198 firm orders.
