C-ing Is Believing

The overwhelming verdict: they do. Even pitched at a relatively tight 30in, the CSeries was supremely comfortable, with more than enough space for over a hundred people and their accompanying luggage on the smaller CS100 variant.

The CSeries is Bombardier’s first clean sheet design since the mid-1990s, with the airframer deciding repeatedly on stretching its Canadair Regional Jet product instead. But the spacious, quiet, airy CSeries couldn’t be anything less like the relatively cramped, space-constrained and noisy CRJ family if it tried.

A two-model family brackets the regional airliner segment

The smaller of the two existing variants of the CSeries is the CS100, a 108-133 seater (with a one-class 125-seat model selected by launch customer Swiss). Airbus and Boeing have effectively abandoned this end of the market by discarding the A318 and 737-600 when it comes to the neo and MAX re-engined half-generational twinjet market. Airbus is even starting to call the A319neo a niche aircraft, while Boeing is mooting a 737 MAX 7 larger than the 737-700. The greatest existing competitor in this segment is likely to be the Embraer E195 and its re-engined E195-E2 counterpart.

Bombardier first flew the CS100 in September 2013, with initial type certification by Transport Canada in December 2015. It was CS100 flight test vehicle FTV5 that the airframer painted into Swiss livery for the Paris Airshow 2015 and the first passenger flight to shuttle Star Alliance CEOs and media between Dublin and Zurich from IATA’s annual general meeting to the yearly get-together for the alliance’s chief executive board.

The larger CS300 is expected to seat 135 passengers in a two-class configuration, and up to 145 in a single-class layout. In a high-density configuration, as Bombardier proposed to AirAsia, the aircraft could reach 160 passengers. Despite a first flight in only February of last year, the CS300 wowed crowds at last summer’s Paris Airshow and is set to enter into service towards the end of 2016 or early in 2017.

The CSeries has so effectively demonstrated its benefits to launch customer Swiss – particularly in competition with the 145-seat Airbus A319 – that chief executive Thomas Klühr declared that the smaller A320 family member had “no future” in the Swiss fleet. Given Bombardier’s multiple stretches of its other commercial aircraft (the CRJ200, into the -700, -900 and -1000 versions) it wouldn’t seem out of the question for the airframer to be quietly planning a CS500 series to seriously dispatch the A319, optimised for 150-seat operations (given the increment of one flight attendant per 50 passengers) and edge further up the market.

Bombardier’s engine selection avoids A320neo Pratt & Whitney problems

The numerous issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines on the Airbus A320neo have been well documented, but the rotor bow problem and the ongoing requirement for an extended startup period for the neo’s PW1000G geared turbofan powerplants – resulting in the European airframer spending much of 2016 building what it calls “gliders” to sit engineless in Toulouse and Hamburg – are not present in the CSeries’ PW1500G variant. The Pratt & Whitney engine is the exclusive powerplant for the CSeries, so this is quite fortunate.

“The CSeries is the same core engine but it’s a different configuration,” Bombardier head of commercial aircraft Fred Cromer told Australian Aviation, “so the operating limitations that you’ve read about on the neo application with the Pratt engine, we do not have those restrictions on this aircraft. It’s part of the design in combination with Pratt and Bombardier in designing the connection point of the engine: it avoids that issue altogether. So when Swiss takes delivery of the aircraft, there’ll be no operating restrictions on this aircraft. ” Chief engineer and vice president for the CSeries program Rob Dewar confirmed that there is no hydraulic issue (as there is with the A320neo, causing the Qatar Airways rejections) nor an extended startup requirement.

“We have no issue with hydraulic temperatures,” Dewar explained. “In fact, the CSeries picked another configuration. Brakes are electrical, so we have a lower hydraulic load on this aircraft. Startup times have been consistent throughout the program: 75 seconds. ” “We made an architectural change in the engine installation,” Dewar said. “We went with a different mounting system, so we have what’s called a fan case mount in the front, so the engine has a better architecture to support the engine. It’s really helped alleviate the rotor bow that the neo engine has experienced. ” Overall, Dewar noted, there have been a few positive side effects to the significant delays to the CSeries programme. “We had time to fix those items, so we’re entering service with a very clean aircraft. Let me give you an example: today’s flight, zero snags. In the cockpit there’s an electronic checklist, so you can actually check yourself. I’ve brought [Lufthansa chief executive] Carsten Spohr into the front, and he took a look himself to look at the cockpit and get the feedback. ”

The CSeries offers the best economy passenger experience in the world

It’s hard to find anything to criticise about the passenger experience within the cabin of the CSeries, from walking through the full-sized aircraft door on boarding until walking back through it when leaving the aircraft.

“The passenger experience that I would say separates the CSeries is really the openness of the cabin,” Cromer explained. “The design of the fuselage to allow the carry-on luggage to be tucked up into the ceiling, much more like what you would see on a widebody aircraft, really opens up the cabin and creates a spacious feel. When you combine that with the windows and the size of the windows, and how close they are together, plus the position of the windows, again it creates a more spacious feeling. For a single-aisle aircraft, it’s got widebody comfort, and it’s hard to describe that until you really are sitting in the airplane. ” And that was evident even on the first passenger flight. Everything is bigger than the competition on the CSeries: seats, aisles, bins, windows, lavatories, ceilings, galleys and the fuselage itself.

“The CSeries really seems to have been designed with passenger comfort as a main philosophy,” data research manager Jason Rabinowitz of inflight data site Routehappy tells Australian Aviation.

“The windows are incredibly large for an aircraft of its size, about 50 per cent larger than the Airbus A320 Family aircraft. They’re more along the size you would expect from a twin-aisle aircraft. The CSeries is configured in a 2-3 layout, limiting the number of middle seats on board to just one per row. Bombardier has also designed the CSeries so that those who do end up in a middle seat will be pleasantly surprised that the middle seats are actually wider than window or aisle seats, at about 19in wide. Airlines are also able to fully kit out the CSeries with seatback entertainment and Wi-Fi, if they so choose. ” The 2-3 economy class configuration is popular with passengers and airlines alike, not least because it means that the aircraft must have a load factor of 80 per cent before the middle seats start to be filled. That compares with a 67 per cent load on a 3-3 configuration, but this is obviously not a problem for the 2-2 Embraer competition.

Asked by Australian Aviation whether he thought that Qantas’s existing operation of the 2-3 Boeing 717 aircraft gave Bombardier an advantage in its eventual replacement, Cromer said: “I think the operators that really have that configuration like the configuration because there’s fewer middle seats, there’s also five abreast sharing the same bin space, so it has some advantages that you really don’t think about as a passenger that are very meaningful to the operator. ” All five seats are – and are immediately perceptible as – very wide for economy, filling the 3. 28m-wide cabin. Aisle and window seats are a full 18. 5in between regular sized armrests, without the need for any ultra-slimline armrest funny business, and that extra width for the middle seat comes as a bonus. Even pitched at 30in on the first passenger flight, using Zodiac Aerospace slimline seats, the CSeries felt like premium economy compared with the seats even on a relatively wide A320, and certainly leaps and bounds more spacious than a Boeing 737. We’re entering service with a very clean aircraft. FRED CROMER “Wider seats are important because people themselves are getting larger,” Routehappy’s Rabinowitz continues. “As airlines become more disciplined in capacity control, flights are also operating at higher load factors, meaning those middle seats are increasingly filled. A wider middle seat is a nice consolation prize for having to sit between two other passengers. ” But can the CSeries be turned into an ultra-tight 3-3 budget carrier nightmare? Simply put, it is unlikely. Turning the 18. 5in economy seats and 19in middle seat on the CSeries into 16. 5in ultra-narrow seats (as seen on the very tight A330 or A340 charter/ultra low-cost carrier 3-3-3 layout) would only give 10. 5in of space, with the aisle having to lose five and a half inches. Apart from the emergency egress concerns of such a tight configuration, such a tight aisle (even if potentially barely certifiable) would require much greater than normal turn times to allow passengers to contort themselves into seats that narrow.

Unlike some competing airliners, moreover, the CSeries can offer galleys both fore and aft, and the wider aisles make service logistics remarkably simple. Four Bombardier cabin crew were able to serve a hot meal (including a chilled starter, salad and dessert) to over a hundred journalists and chief executives within an hour of departing Dublin, and despite an unusual amount of people milling around, taking photographs and generally getting in the way. Most airlines won’t attempt anything like that amount of hot food service, but the option is there to enable improvements in the passenger experience.

Business class on the CSeries is likely to be a 2-2 configuration, similar to the 717, on those airlines that operate recliner products in business, and either a 1-2 or 2-2 configuration in the middle-seat-free Eurobusiness style, depending on the airlines’ policies.

Overall, says Rabinowitz, “The CSeries is a generational leap beyond other aircraft in its class operating in the Australian market. The F100 and Avro RJ are great aircraft, but they’re the last generation of aircraft. The CSeries offers more creature comforts than those older models, is greener and is also incredibly quiet. ”

Composite focus in wing walks line between technology, cost and practicality

Bombardier has balanced the weight and structural benefits from advanced composite materials by concentrating on introducing them to the wing rather than the fuselage.

“The original design was more composite,” Cromer explained to Australian Aviation, “but to get that composite technology to be cost-effective at this size level we decided not to make that trade and decided to keep the aluminium. At the time, the composite fuselage was something that wasn’t quite tested. The aluminium-lithium is a little bit lighter than standard aluminium, but the wing, which we make in Belfast, is composite. If you look out the window you’ll notice there’s not nearly as many rivets that go up and down the wing, and it’s a very high aspect ratio wing, which adds a lot to the fuel efficiency of the aircraft. We talk so much about the engine, but the newly designed wing is really what separates this airplane from re-engined aircraft which are using the same wing design essentially as when the original aircraft were built. ” The wing, the engines and the aerodynamics of the CSeries enable both CS100 and CS300 to exceed 3,000nm in range in normal operations, with the smaller aircraft reaching 3,100nm and the larger a further 200nm. Under the short field, high-ascent/descent angle operations that Bombardier calls “urban” missions, with London City or Toronto Billy Bishop the examples, the CSeries can be optimised to span 2,200nm – from Zurich, as far east as Israel and deep into north Africa.

Short field performance itself is impressive, requiring just 4,000ft or 1,219m for the CS100 at maximum takeoff weight, and 5,000ft or 1,524m for the CS300 under the same conditions. Indeed, the CSeries’ short field capabilities were more than adequately displayed at Dublin with the Bombardier pilots taking off very short and fairly rocketing into the air, to exclamations from even the relatively jaded CEOs and journalists on board.

CSeries sits in an increasingly crowded but relatively urgent replacement field

It’s hard to think of a time in aviation history when so many airframers were producing as many regional aircraft in as many countries as we see today. Whether it’s the Russian Sukhoi Superjet or recently unveiled Irkut MC-21, the Chinese Comac ARJ21 or C919, the Japanese Mitsubishi MRJ or the Brazilian Embraer E-Jet (and E2) family, let alone the Airbus A319neo or Boeing 737 MAX 7, airlines have an immensely wide range of choices.

Bombardier’s pedigree in commercial regional jets may well put it at an advantage among this crowded market. The CRJ may well have been an aircraft for a different time and to an extent a specific set of niche markets (although the recent fall in fuel prices has led numerous airlines to postpone their withdrawal), but its success has demonstrated Bombardier’s commercial jet capabilities, as has the Dash 8 series in turboprop operations.

The range of aircraft the CSeries is likely to replace is equally as wide, of course. The Fokker 100, Avro RJ/BAe 146, McDonnell Douglas MD-80/Boeing 717, early Embraer E-Jets, and the CRJ family, not to mention a range of Russian aircraft and the smaller Airbus A318 and Boeing 737-600 frames, are all targets for the CSeries. Even the current efficient larger turboprop generation of the ATR 72 and the Bombardier Q400 are potential targets.

Many of these aircraft are reaching the end of their economically sensible lives, particularly for operators that do not have an existing maintenance, repair and overhaul facility. Some, notably the rear-engined Fokker 100, MD-80 family and Boeing 717, plus the high-winged Avro RJ/BAe 146, do have additional unimproved airstrip capabilities that the CSeries may not be able to match, however. With the increase in turbofan diameter from the latest generation of aircraft powerplants, the underwing mounts for the CSeries (and everything from the 737 MAX to the A320neo, E2 and MC-21, among others) may prove to be a limiter in these markets. The Comac ARJ21 – and, indeed, the Bombardier CRJ – are the exceptions in the modern market.

In the Australian context, it’s notable how many Fokker 100s and Avro RJs/BAe 146s still operate FIFO and remote operations, and while this may be a niche market within a niche market, it may well be one that is worth filling. Bombardier, however, has no plans to do so.

Australian Aviation asked Bombardier’s Cromer about the matter, but he referred us to the technical experts. A Bombardier spokesperson later confirmed, “this is not currently in our immediate roadmap for the CSeries. ”

The Australian market is ripe for CSeries orders

Of the CSeries’ over 300 orders, none come from Australian airlines, although a substantial proportion is from finance companies, which might well end up leasing the aircraft into Australia.

Yet the aircraft’s efficient operation and excellent comfort over long distances where larger narrowbodies might be too much capacity suggests the CSeries could do well here. Even from Auckland, the CSeries could reach any part of Australia. From Perth, it’s almost all of South-East Asia even with the 3,100nm range of the CS100. From Sydney, much of Indonesia and a significant part of the south-west Pacific is in range – and for the small national Pacific airlines, the CSeries’ size, economics and modern aircraft reliability may well be attractive.

So, is Bombardier talking up the CSeries in this neck of the woods? “In fact, it’s better to talk to the Australian operators,” Cromer said, “because they have an interest in the aircraft, and like many they’ve been waiting to see this momentum in the program take off. So now where we are is a different kind of conversation with the operators, because they are starting to believe in the airplane. Now we switch the conversation to ‘how will it work in their network?’, ‘what kind of passenger experience are they looking for?’ and the flexibility given the performance capabilities of the aircraft are very attractive. So I think we have lots of opportunities in the Australian market. ” With that momentum, is VP and CSeries boss Rob Dewar feeling a bit more relieved? “Absolutely. It’s a very rewarding time, especially after all the difficult times,” he said on the ground in Zurich after the first commercial flight. “We’ve worked extremely hard. We just believed in the right market and the right aircraft – we’ve just got to stick to it. It’s very rewarding now to see CEOs saying positive things, and the recent increase in sales has been very rewarding. ” Are any of those CEOs putting pen to paper? “It looked like a lot of smiles, so we’ll see! It really helps, to be honest, that they can see it themselves, experience it themselves, and take away all the rhetoric that people are saying, so that’s positive,” Dewar said.

With regard to Bombardier’s recent massive deal with Delta for 75 – and up to 125 – CSeries, “they’ve proven they can give away the airplane,” Airbus’s chief of sales John Leahy – who, one assumes, has never cut a deal with an early customer ordering large numbers of an untested aircraft – said of Bombardier in Hamburg several days before the first passenger flight.

Yet if the CSeries proves as popular with passengers and airlines as it should, what John Leahy derided in Hamburg as “a cute little airplane” might just end up snapping off the lower end of the A320neo family’s market.

The right tool for the job?

While new generation narrowbodies such as Bombardier’s CSeries and Embraer’s E2 jets are proving a good bet for airlines looking to update their fleets, these aircraft are not the solution for everyone.

Hawaiian Airlines chief executive Mark Dunkerley describes the CSeries as an aircraft designed for improved fuel efficiency and range, with engines optimised for cruise.

For most airline bosses, this would be a good thing. Except if you happen to operate one of the world’s largest Boeing 717 fleets that are regularly scheduled for 16 cycles a day on super short routes between the Hawaiian islands.

As a result, the CSeries, or similarly new designs from Embraer, Mitsubishi, Sukhoi, Comac and others, are not the answer to the question of what will eventually replace aircraft such as the 717 or Fokker 100.

“No aeroplane available today or on the drawing board today meets our needs for that peculiar neighbour-island operation like the 717,” Dunkerley tells Australian Aviation in an interview on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting in Dublin.

“What we care about is that the cycle costs of the aeroplane are low, and it can just take the repetitive bumping of a belt-loader and a jet bridge and so on.

“We sort of understand why the manufacturers are optimised for another mission. It is just that mission isn’t our mission and that leaves us in a fairly unique position. ” Thankfully for Hawaiian, or other significant 717 operators such as Qantas and Delta Air Lines, what will be the true 717 replacement will not have to be answered for a while, given the durability of the airframe.

Dunkerley said Hawaiian’s 18 717s, which seat between 123-128 passengers and collectively complete about 160 takeoffs and landings a day, were in great shape.

“We’ve recently done the 16,000-cycle check on a number of them and we would anticipate operating them really for the foreseeable future and we are really pleased about that,” Dunkerley said.

“The 717 is an old McDonnell Douglas airframe, it is absolutely tough as nails, it is uniquely well-suited to this particular mission.

“This is an airframe which in other guises operated well over 30 years, 40 years in some cases. ” Boeing built 155 717s, with production ending in 2006.

In this part of the world, Qantas has 20 717s at the airline’s regional wing QantasLink that are operated by Cobham Aviation Services, which supplies the flightcrew and cabin crew.

The airline group’s fly-in/fly-out and charter arm Network Aviation also has 12 100-seat Fokker 100s.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is open to the possibility of Embraer or Bombardier being the answer to both airframes’ eventual replacement.

However, like Hawaiian’s Dunkerley, that call won’t have to be made for a while.

“Obviously we are keeping an eye on the Embraers, the CSeries. They have the potential to be longer-term replacements but we are a long way away before we have to replace the 717s and the F100s,” Joyce said.

“The F100s have very low utilisation. That’s going to continue, that’s why we bought them. The capital costs are low.

“We believe that they have a good life ahead of them. We are actually buying 717s. We obviously believe they have a long life as well.

“We are not making any decisions now. ” Joyce said Qantas was looking to buy 717s it currently had on lease as those leases expired and was on the lookout for further acquisitions in what was a scarce market.

“We’ve been out there hunting for more,” Joyce said.

“They are a great aircraft. If there was a possibility of getting a few more of them, we’d be keen on them. ” In a broader context, the likes of Bombardier, Comac, Embraer, Mitsubishi and Sukhoi are trying to capture a slice of the small narrowbody market amid growing demand for air travel and where Airbus and Boeing remain dominant incumbents.

Asked if these smaller players would find their place alongside the big two, Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier said: “I believe, as far as Airbus is concerned, that for many years to come by far the biggest and strongest competitor to Airbus will remain Boeing and then probably the Chinese industry also will get a share of it. ” “Our job is to be more competitive, is to expand our marketshare, is to please customers and is to continue to innovate further to still be ahead of the competition,” Bregier told reporters at Airbus Innovation Days media briefings in Hamburg on May 31.

“We are in a global market so I cannot blame other candidates to develop and sell commercial aircraft. ” Jetstar group chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka also foreshadowed the rise of the Chinese manufacturers would result in an order from a Western airline.

“I think we live in a different world today where quality and efficiency against the mission is everything and if you’ve got an established player who can demonstrate that they can solve against those three things and can compete against Boeing and Airbus who have deep history, then I don’t know why not,” Hrdlicka said during a panel discussion at the IATA AGM.

“I’d be really surprised if we didn’t see innovation come into technology with respect to the airframe and I’d be really surprised if we didn’t see a real strong Chinese manufacturer come through and that we had more choice two decades from now than we have today. ”