Bombardier today announced the pause of its under development Learjet 85 business aircraft program citing weak demand.
Bombardier today announced the pause of its under development Learjet 85 business aircraft program citing weak demand.
The move follows the continued weakness of the Light aircraft category since the economic downturn and a downward revision of Bombardier's business aircraft market forecast.
Bombardier says it will focus resources on the other two clean-sheet aircraft programs under development, the CSeries and Global 7000/8000, for which it see tremendous market potential.
As a result, the Company will record a pre-tax special charge in the fourth quarter of 2014 of approximately $1.4 billion mainly related to the impairment of the Learjet 85 development costs.
Additionally, Bombardier will lay off approximately 1,000 employees at its sites in Querétaro, Mexico, and Wichita, United States. The company will implement a severance provision of approximately $25 million.
Under development since 2007, the jet missed a service entry target in 2013 and didn’t make its first flight until April 2014.
The Learjet 85 is the largest of the family, designed to fit between the midsize and the super midsize segments, and the first Bombardier business jet to use composite structure.
Learjet 85 is designed to seat 8 passenger and cruise at Mach 0.82 with a transcontinental range of approximately 5,556 km.
Bombardier's Wichita facility is the location of final assembly activities for the Learjet 70 and Learjet 75 aircraft, the Bombardier Flight Test Center as well as a Service Center. In addition to contributing to many of Bombardier’s aircraft programs, the Querétaro site recently completed its Global 7000/8000 aft fuselage manufacturing building.
