Bombardier takes $960 million US in new orders for trams, regional jets

Bombardier Inc. of Montreal has scored two hits this week with a $190 million US contract for trams and a $770 million US deal for aircraft. The orders come at a time when the company had faced further production cuts due to falling sales.

The order to Bombardier's rail division will provide thirty tram trains to two European train operators. Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (known as AVG) and Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH (known as VBK) have ordered thirty Flexity tram-trains from the Montreal-based transportation firm. The trains will be delivered between August 2011 and September 2013, and the companies have signed an option that could result in as many as forty-five more train orders from Bombardier.

The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's facilities in Bautzen, Germany, and Vienna, Austria.

The jet order from AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, is a letter of interest for twenty-two of Bombardier's CRJ700 jets for its regional carrier, American Eagle. The first plane is to be delivered in 2010.

In the 20-to-99 seat aircraft segment, Bombardier expects 3,800 regional jets to be delivered by 2028 compared to 2,300 turboprops. Recently the Q400 turboprops have been seen by many carriers as a more fuel-efficient alternative to the jets, but they are limited to about half the flying distance of the jets.