Online Editor

Chad Trautvetter

<p>Bombardier today reported $4.6 billion in revenues for its fiscal third quarter (ending October 31), which is on par with year-ago earnings. However, third-quarter revenues at Bombardier Aerospace fell from $2.3 billion last year to $2.1 billion this year due to fewer aircraft deliveries, namely a 42-percent drop in business jet shipments. During the quarter, Bombardier delivered 33 business jets versus 57 last year. By model this breaks down to four 40-series Learjets (11 in 3Q/08), four Learjet 60XRs (seven), seven Challenger 300s (13), nine Challenger 605s (12), eight Globals (12) and one Challenger 800 (two). The aerospace backlog stood at $18.1 billion as of October 31, compared with $23.5 billion on January 31. On the bright side, Bombardier is seeing positive indications that the business jet market is picking up, noting that in the third quarter it saw the first net increase in business jet orders this year. However, the increase was for seven aircraft, a fraction of the 68 net orders logged a year ago. Bombardier still has 14 white tails on property–identified as mostly Learjets and a Challenger 800–but said it expects to have all of these sold by the end of next month. </p>
