Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada, poses in the airline’s new museum at Montreal headquarters, February 24, 2016. (Christinne Muschi for The Globe and Mail)The Globe and Mail
The federal government should provide some form of assistance to Bombardier Inc., Air Canada chief executive officer Calin Rovinescu says.
"For important global champions like an aerospace leader – like they are – to succeed, they do require some level of support from the government," Mr. Rovinescu told reporters Monday after a speech in Toronto. "When you look at what's gone on with respect to Airbus in France and Germany, with respect to Boeing in the United States, with respect to Embraer in Brazil, each of those manufacturers have received support at the right times from their respective governments."
If the federal government recognizes that Bombardier is the aerospace leader in Canada, it should step up, he said.
Ottawa is assessing a $1-billion (U.S.) contribution to Bombardier, which has already won a similar commitment from the Quebec government for its new C Series plane. The largest jet project undertaken by the Montreal-based transportation giant is more than $2-billion over budget, more than two years behind schedule and has so far failed to make major inroads in the market.
The most recent customer, however – and it's a major one – is Air Canada, which has signed a letter of intent to order 45 of the larger CS300 version of the plane, plus options for another 30. A purchase of 45 planes would be worth $3.8-billion at list prices, but Air Canada is purchasing them at a significant discount, industry sources have said.
The letter of intent should become a firm order "in the next weeks," Mr. Rovinescu said. "It's coming together pretty quickly now."
As part of the deal to purchase the planes, the Quebec government agreed to drop a court case in which it was challenging Air Canada's shift of several hundred heavy-maintenance jobs out of Montreal to other locations in Quebec and offshore.
Air Canada also agreed as part of the settlement to perform heavy maintenance of its C Series planes in Montreal.
The Air Canada purchase of the C Series should give other airlines the confidence "to purchase this extremely efficient, next-generation aircraft," Mr. Rovinescu said in his speech.
It's important to support Canada's aerospace industry, he added, calling the C Series "one of the most important innovative technology projects in Canada today."
He also lauded the federal government's announcement, which is also linked to the C Series deal, that it would update the Air Canada Public Participation Act.
One of the provisions in the act required Air Canada to perform maintenance of its heavy aircraft in Montreal and Winnipeg.
"No other airline in Canada, or, to our knowledge, any private-sector airline anywhere, is subject to restrictions such as those imposed on Air Canada," he said.
Asked about the deal announced on the weekend that involves Alaska Airlines Inc. buying Virgin America Inc., he said it will have no impact on Air Canada, but added consolidation among U.S. airlines in recent years has been good for the industry.