Bombardier C Series Could Be Renamed Airbus A200

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: April 26, 2018

22 comments

The Bombardier C Series is a new narrowbody aircraft that is proving very popular with passengers and airlines. The plane is comfortable and has great economics and range, so over the coming years we should see more and more of these in service.

Last October a big change was announced to the future of the C Series. Specifically, it was announced that Bombardier would sell a majority stake in the C Series program to Airbus. Under this arrangement, Airbus will own 50.01% of the C Series project, Bombardier will own 31% of the project, and Investissement Québec will own 19% of the project.

While the two aren’t necessarily related, this was announced around the same time as a big trade dispute between Bombardier and Boeing, which Boeing ended up losing.

As part of Airbus’ involvement in the project, the two companies hope for significant savings by leveraging Airbus’ supply chain expertise, and also plan to open a new C Series final assembly line in the US. Beyond that, it looks like Airbus’ involvement in the C Series program may lead to another big change.

Bloomberg reports that Airbus intends to rebrand the C Series. According to people familiar with the matter, “A200” is one of the names under consideration for the C Series.

Currently there’s the CS100 and CS300, so those planes would be designated as the A210 and A230, which makes sense. Currently Airbus uses “A3XX” for all of their planes, as they’ve produced the A300, A310, A320, A330, A340, A350, and A380. It makes sense that they’d go for a lower number given that the plane is smaller (not that the numbers have always been indicative of the size of the plane).

In many ways this is a logical move. Airbus has a lot more brand recognition than Bombardier, and this would allow the plane to be viewed as more of an extension of Airbus’ existing line of aircraft. The story also suggests that this would reassure potential buyers about the long term future of the plane. However, I feel like the plane’s future is pretty secure, given how popular it is.

We’ll find out for sure whether this rebranding will happen in the coming months. The deal is expected to formally close in July, which is when any changes would likely be revealed.

What do you make of the concept of the Bombardier C Series being branded as the Airbus A200?

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bert Guest

December 28, 2018, 6:12 am

The A220 is relative in size to its bigger series of medium range aircraft but can fly farther. Airbus had been toying with the idea of a smaller aircraft for some time and already created the designated A200 series well before it bought any share in bombardier. Further more if it had not bought into Bombardier it would have come up with a smaller aircraft than the A318. A2xx series denotes its size in the airbus family rather than anything nefarious or some bad reminder of the bombardier failure. I doubt anyone in europe will even care about such a thing, as long as they can get from point a to be b quickly. The A220 has more leg room and head room, the chairs recline to 70 degrees in most areas of the aircraft. Its seats are more comfy than any of the A3xx medium range aircraft. Overall its a very beautiful aircraft to take a flight in, with enough leg room and really comfy seats.

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bert Guest

December 28, 2018, 6:02 am

It has already been named the A220 by Airbus, and the interesting thing about this little bird is its distance. It can out fly serveral medium sized airbuses such as the A320 and A321. It is capable of taking off from most airports in the UK and Ireland and flying across the Atlantic to most North Eastern Seaboard airports in the US. Whoever puts an order in for these, such as EasyJet could quite easily corner the market for the transatlantic market with cheap flights. Just like some non stop long distance budget carriers that out compete their more expensive siblings. Then again the more expensive is what your paying for, for a very comfortable flight and the flight being split up into a couple of legs. However I digress. The A220 has far as I am aware has no back orders from any european airline as of the moment, and that will change at any time between now and A220. Strangely Airbus are focusing entirely on their A350. Because it would seem the over expensive A380 is already in decline because of both cost and efficiency, it cannot be efficient if its constantly having mechanical problems and sitting in large hangars waiting for repair.

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Azamaraal Diamond

May 2, 2018, 9:15 pm

One of the world's best turboprops is the Q400 (shh - it's a Bombardier). The original designs were DeHaviland which was purchased by Bombardier. The Q400 is a massive redesign that has proven to be very successful. The CRJ series aircraft do everything they were designed to do. Some airlines have made flying in them uncomfortable but don't blame that on the aircraft. Check out EK's terrible economy cabins for additional examples of how to screw things up royally. The C Series was designed in Canada and should retain its proud name and heritage. It is a wonderful plane - so much better than any Airbus design so please don't let Airbus take the credit even though Trump forced the sale!

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Max Flight Guest

April 29, 2018, 1:22 pm

Bombardi-bus? AirBomb?

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derek Diamond

April 28, 2018, 1:07 pm

^^ Canadair stole Learjet's plane to make the CRJ. The fact is that Canada has high costs and is an aviation failure. Look at Canadair. Look at Avro Canada. Look at the Avro Arrow. It's not because Canadians are bad people but because costs are high in Canada and the world market is tough. ...and don't blame America.

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