Aircraft
Bombardier Gets Moody’s Rating Upgrade
Moves to Ba/BB category with both Moody’s, S&P for the first time in more than a decade
Bombardier Challenger 3500 on taxiway
Bombardier has brought product updates such as the Challenger 3500 to market since becoming a pure-play business aviation company. (Photo: Bombardier)

Moody’s has upgraded Bombardier’s credit rating from B1 to Ba3 with a positive outlook, bringing the Montreal-based manufacturer back into the Ba/BB category with both that rating agency and with S&P for the first time in more than a decade.

The change in ratings follows a period when Bombardier’s backlog had grown to $16.6 billion by the end of the third quarter, adjusted net income had jumped 59% year over year to $227 million on revenues of $2.3 billion, and available liquidity had reached $1.6 billion. It also marks the company’s slow climb out of deep debt that forced it to sell off all of its non-business-aviation businesses—including regional jets and turboprops, aerostructures, and rail—and evolve into a pure-play business aviation company in January 2021.  

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