Bombardier Inc.
Bombardier Inc. () is a Canadian business jet manufacturer. Headquartered in Montreal, the company was founded in 1942 by Joseph-Armand Bombardier to market his snowmobiles and became one of the world's biggest producers of aircraft and trains. In the 1970s and 1980s, the company diversified into public transport vehicles and commercial jets and became a multinational corporation. It grew particularly fast at the end of the 1980s when the turnover multiplied sixfold within six years. At that time it was North America's most important producer of railway vehicles, Canada's most important aerospace producer and the worldwide leading snowmobile manufacturer. The growth came mainly from buying failing government-owned companies at a low price and orchestrating a turnaround. However, the launch of the CSeries aircraft sent the company into deep debt, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy by 2015. As a result, the company sold nearly all of its operations except business jet manufacturing. Bombardier manufactures several series of corporate jets: Global 7500, Global Express, Challenger 650 and Challenger 3500. Divested lines of business Commercial aviation In 1986, Bombardier acquired Canadair for C$120 million from the Government of Canada after it recorded the largest corporate loss in Canadian history. In 1989, the company acquired Short Brothers. By 1990, the first product of the company, the Ski-Doo snowmobile, had become its weakest part gaging up deficits and high inventories. In 1990, it acquired Learjet. In 1992, the company acquired de Havilland Canada from Boeing. In 1995, the company founded Flexjet. In December 2013, the division was sold for $195 million. On June 29, 2016, Bombardier delivered the first CSeries CS100 aircraft (now called the Airbus A220) to Swiss International Air Lines. Air Canada placed an order for the aircraft one day earlier. In April 2016, Delta Air Lines placed an order for the aircraft. On September 26, 2017, after Boeing complained that Bombardier was selling the CS100 to Delta Air Lines below cost due to subsidies from the governments of Canada and Quebec, the United States Department of Commerce proposed a 219% tariff on the aircraft. Boeing's complaint stated that the CS100 planes were being sold at US$19.6 million each, below the US$33.2 million production cost. The governments of Canada and the United Kingdom threatened to stop ordering Boeing aircraft since the company was putting aerospace jobs at risk. On January 26, 2018, the United States International Trade Commission overturned the tariffs. Boeing did not appeal. In July 2018, Airbus acquired a 50.01% stake in the CSeries for one Canadian dollar, with an option to acquire the remaining interest by 2024. Airbus built a second CSeries assembly line at its A320 assembly facility in Mobile, Alabama. In November 2018, the company announced the sale of its turboprop passenger aircraft unit to an affiliate of Viking Air. It also announced 5,000 layoffs. In March 2019, the company sold its Business Aircraft Training business to CAE Inc. for $645 million. The business included flight simulators and training devices for the Bombardier Learjet, Challenger, and