Aircraft

Bombardier yesterday admitted it is experiencing some supply chain challenges with its Q400 turboprop programme, resulting in slower deliveries, but expects to see improvements at the end of the year.

During an earnings conference call yesterday, Bombardier Aerospace president and chief operating officer Guy Hachey said high demand has put a lot of pressure on the supply chain both internally and externally. Backlog for the Q400 stands at over 100 orders, he notes.

Additionally, the company is in the process of moving Q400 fuselage work from Japan to China and Belfast "so that creates some growing pains".

But Hachey calls the issue "a temporary problem" and says that while challenges will continue into the fiscal third quarter "you should see us improving at the end of the year".

Bombardier also sees a softening in the commercial regional jet market, due to current industry turmoil and restructuring by US airlines. However, Hachey predicts that the fiscal third and fourth quarters "will be more normalized" than the just-ended quarter, a period when some orders were not concluded as expected.

"We are not concerned. We have a good healthy backlog and we should be able to maintain that level of backlog," he says.

Bombardier received 175 net orders in the fiscal second quarter ended 31 July. This comprised 162 business aircraft, 11 commercial aircraft and two amphibious aircraft.

A slow down in business aircraft demand is also being forecast. "We should have reasonably good quarters but not to the extent we had in the second quarter," says Hachey.