CRJ Rate Hike Planned

Bombardier will further increase production of its CRJ700 and CRJ900 regional jets to one aircraft every three days, resulting in an annual rate of 64 regional jets during its 2009 fiscal year, the company announced last month during a review of its
third-quarter FY2008 financial results. In August, Bombardier said it planned to boost the rate from this fiscal year’s 50 to 57 in FY09, but projections for further backlog growth have prompted another hike. At the end of October, Bombardier carried a backlog of 142 regional jets–down somewhat from the 157 it held after this fiscal year’s second quarter, but still far from the comparatively anemic 80-aircraft backlog it carried a year earlier. The company collected net firm orders for 119 regional jets and 88 Q Series turboprops during the first three quarters of this fiscal year. Plans call for Q Series production rates to remain unchanged next year, at roughly 65.