Bombardier Aerospace announced today that the development of the CSeries aircraft is making excellent progress as the program readies to transition to the flight test phase in order to achieve first flight by the end of June 2013.

Bombardier Aerospace has confirmed that CDB Leasing  Co., Ltd. (“CDB Leasing”), a subsidiary of China Development Bank (“CDB”), is the ultimate beneficial owner of the entity previously unidentified as the customer who placed an order for five Global 6000 jets on December 21, 2012. The firm order is valued at approximately $293 million US based on the 2012 list price for typically equipped aircraft.

Bombardier Aerospace has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI) of Miami, Florida to become a Bombardier-licensed Third Party Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) Provider for passenger-to-freighter conversions for CRJ100 and CRJ200 aircraft. The freighters will include a large cargo door and will be marketed by AEI as CRJ100 and CRJ200 Special Freighter (SF) aircraft.   

Bombardier Aerospace today announced that each of its eight wholly owned service centres in the U.S. has been awarded a 2012 Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) Diamond Award Certificate of Excellence, the industry’s highest honour for aviation maintenance.

Flexjet, the world’s second largest fractional jet ownership provider, has received the coveted Diamond Award of Excellence from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Diamond Award of Excellence is the FAA’s highest honor for maintenance training, and Flexjet is the only company that also manages a fractional jet ownership program to receive this award for 14 consecutive years.

Flying Colours Corp., the completions, refurbishment and maintenance specialist, announced today that Bombardier* has appointed both its Peterborough, ON, Canada and JetCorp Technical Services, St Louis, Missouri, USA, locations as Authorized Service Facilities (ASF) for Learjet* and Challenger* business jets.

Bombardier Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney announced today that Pratt & Whitney has successfully achieved Transport Canada type certification of its first PurePower Geared Turbofan™ engine – the PW1500G engine that will power Bombardier's CSeries aircraft.

Bombardier Aerospace today announced the start of production at its transitional facility in Morocco. Following a graduation ceremony held on February 1 at the Institut des Métiers de  l’Aéronautique (IMA), 18 aircraft assemblers began production of the first Bombardier components to come out of its Moroccan manufacturing facility.

Bombardier Aerospace has welcomed Yakutia Airlines to the growing family of Bombardier Q400 aircraft operators. Yakutia Airlines, a domestic passenger carrier based in the northeast region of Russia, will fly three Q400 aircraft, with the first one having arrived this week at Yakutsk Airport.

Bombardier Aerospace today increased its aftermarket service network for business aircraft customers with the addition of a Line Maintenance Facility (LMF) in Nigeria. ExecuJet Nigeria in Lagos has been named an LMF for Challenger 300, Challenger 604,Challenger 605,