Canada’s Bombardier and China’s Comac will become close partners in the coming years under the terms of a framework agreement signed between the two companies in March that calls for cooperation in seven major areas, according to Bombardier Commercial Aircraft vice president of international business Ben Boehm. But while industry executives such as Embraer CEO Frederico Curado have called the potentially far-reaching tie-up “very important,” some have expressed doubts about what exactly Bombardier, in particular, has to gain by lending its marketing and technical expertise to a partner that has historically proved an elusive target of opportunity.
In fact, Bombardier had not long ago attempted a somewhat less ambitious collaboration with the Chinese, in 2007, when, under a deal signed at the Paris Air Show with China’s then-dominant aerospace conglomerate Avic I, it agreed to participate in the development of the ARJ21-900 in return for a $400 million investment in research and development and construction of new facilities to support the development of the C Series. But when the Chinese turned their attention away from stretching the ARJ21-700 into a 105-seat regional jet and toward development of the 160- to 190-seat C919, the partnership fizzled, leaving Bombardier searching for new avenues of collaboration.
