US ruling boosts airline confidence in Bombardier's CSeries: Air Lease CEO

A recent trade decision allowing Bombardier to sell its newest jets in the US without hefty duties will boost airline confidence in the program, but the Canadian planemaker still faces challenges to win over lessors, Air Lease Corp CE John Plueger said Wednesday. Bombardier and European planemaker Airbus, which plans to take a majority stake in the CSeries this year, still must convince leasing heavyweights that the 110-to-130-seat CSeries jets has a vast enough customer base to preserve their value and competitive pricing to win orders, Plueger. Air Lease Corp is a major leasing firm with about $15b in total assets. The decision “removes that very, very large question mark on the CSeries (imports) into the United States,” Plueger said. “Bottom line: It’s a big positive for U.S. carriers, but I think it goes beyond US carriers.” Having an adequate customer base is vital for lessors, which want to make sure there is sufficient demand by airlines for multiple leases. The CSeries has a backlog of 372 firm orders. Air Lease Corp did not order the CSeries in the past because “the price and the risk was not a good tradeoff,” when compared to Boeing’s 737 MAX line and Airbus’s A320 NEO family, Plueger said.<br/>