The Future of Bombardier

[kEiThZ]

I‘m interested to see what Viking accomplishes now that they have the entire DeHavilland playbook. Perhaps they’ll rename the Q400 as the DHC-8.

It will be noteworthy if our largest domestic manufacturer of charter aircraft is headquartered in BC or Toronto, not Quebec.

There's really not much they can do with it. It's a limited market. Possibly shrinking. They have a product that is overperforming for its primary role. It's why they keep losings sales to ATR. The Q400 is the Ferrari of turboprops, when most airlines want to buy Honda Civics. They can sell well to niches like operators who do rough field ops. Or the rare carrier who actually needs the speed and range of a Q400 and still doesn't think a regional jet is worthwhile. But in the long run, they'll have to put capital for a development program. I'm not sure they have that.

 

[kEiThZ]

From a Bombardier family investment POV, he’s done a fine job. They sold these divisions for more than they paid for them, and used other people’s money to cover any spread.

I am angry and sad that their incompetence ran that company into the ground. But grateful that they created whole industries out of it in Canada. People forget that because of Bombardier, we have companies CAE and CMC Esterline in Canada. And it's the talent incubated in the aerospace sector in Montreal that provided the base for their AI sector. This is why the loss of an anchor company can be so painful. Imagine if Toronto's finance sector was anchored by just one bank. Now imagine that bank quit the business...

Who knows how long Airbus will stay. They have pledged in their takeover for the jobs to be there till 2041. But when push comes to shove, I'm sure they'll choose Toulouse or Hamburg over Mirabel. They'd probably choose Mobile and Tianjin over Mirabel too. Those are more strategic markets after all.

Our lack of a national industrial strategy is slowly but surely taking away one industry after another. Australia just lost auto manufacturing. How long before Canada does?

 

[drum118]

Bombardier is selling off its entire train division. Is it making a huge mistake?

 

[Johnny Au]

Bombardier is selling off its entire train division. Is it making a huge mistake?

It's probably killing its "golden goose" (though its transportation division really isn't a golden goose).

 

[Amare]

It's probably killing its "golden goose" (though its transportation division really isn't a golden goose).

Whatever components Alstom decides to keep will probably soar once they're in control of them. Bombardier's management is so inept, they would somehow find a way to make the value of gold devalue itself so much that copper would be worth more.

 

[Northern Light]

Whatever components Alstom decides to keep will probably soar once they're in control of them. Bombardier's management is so inept, they would somehow find a way to make the value of gold devalue itself so much that copper would be worth more.

Now, before the Ottawa LRT fiasco, I would have agreed with this statement reflexively.

But those 34 Citadis Spirit vehicles have had unending problems in Ottawa.

It should be said they are hardly Ottawa's only problem, the list is long.

Still, they seem to have been prone to Bombardier's disease in this case, where their rolling stock has really under performed.

 

[nephersir7]

Bellemarre is out as CEO.

He's replaced by Éric Martel, currently President/CEO at Hydro-Quebec and previously president of Bombardier Business Aircraft

Le président d'Hydro passe chez Bombardier

Changement de règne majeur pour deux institutions québécoises : Éric Martel quitte la présidence d’Hydro-Québec pour prendre la place d’Alain Bellemare à la tête de Bombardier. Son entrée en poste est prévue le 6 avril.

www.lapresse.ca

 

[Admiral Beez]

Whatever components Alstom decides to keep will probably soar once they're in control of them. Bombardier's management is so inept, they would somehow find a way to make the value of gold devalue itself so much that copper would be worth more.

I imagine there are folks in Thunder Bay that applaud the sale to Alstrom. While the job risk to those without valuable and transferable skills is real, no one wants to work for losers.

 

[Amare]

Bellemarre is out as CEO.

He's replaced by Éric Martel, currently President/CEO at Hydro-Quebec and previously president of Bombardier Business Aircraft

Le président d'Hydro passe chez Bombardier

Changement de règne majeur pour deux institutions québécoises : Éric Martel quitte la présidence d’Hydro-Québec pour prendre la place d’Alain Bellemare à la tête de Bombardier. Son entrée en poste est prévue le 6 avril.

www.lapresse.ca

Mission accomplished by Bellemarre. After he liquidated pretty much the entire company, he's out and gets to collect his fat paycheck.

This company is one of the biggest Canadian business embarrassment stories of the century.

 

[drum118]

Thunder Bay will still be operating until early 2022 or late 2021 with Metrolinx cars having the Signalling system install them there. Another great blunder by Metrolinx and wasting money that could be use elsewhere in the system.

Metrolinx quietly agreed to pay Bombardier $40M more for LRT vehicles

 

[Admiral Beez]

I have heard their next step is to sell off their remaining biz jet division and concentrate all their efforts in their Whining for Government Handouts Division.

I have to wonder how many executive jets they‘re going to sell during the next 24 months. Not to many CFO’s are going to sign off on $100 million jets during a global pandemic and the worst economic downtown since 1987.

 

[AlbertC]

Bombardier to help make 18,000 ventilators at shuttered Thunder Bay plant

The Canadian Press April 16, 2020

MONTREAL — Bombardier Inc. is helping to produce 18,000 ventilators for the Ontario government at its temporarily shuttered plant in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The plane-and-train maker says it will carry out sanding, painting and assembly work on the equipment for Brampton, Ont.-based O-Two Medical Technologies, which manufactures respiratory care products.

O-Two found its supply chain disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and started hunting for help to churn out portable ventilators amid a looming shortage in Canada, Bombardier said in an email.

The plant expects to start work on April 27, drawing on between 40 and 50 employees — most of whom had been temporarily laid off — over three to four months.

Bombardier to help make 18,000 ventilators at shuttered Thunder Bay plant

MONTREAL — Bombardier Inc. is helping to produce 18,000 ventilators for the Ontario government at its temporarily shuttered plant in Thunder Bay, Ont.The plane-and-train maker says it will carry out sanding, painting and assembly work on the equipment for Brampton, Ont.-based O-Two Medical...

ca.finance.yahoo.com

 

[Amare]

That's the least they could do for us after they sucked away billions from Canadians and dumped it down the drain after being subsidized by various levels of government.

One last good act from them before they put themselves out of their misery and go bankrupt. Pierre Beaudoin and the rest of the family should be summoned to personally handcraft those ventilators.

 

[urbanyimby]

That's the least they could do for us after they sucked away billions from Canadians and dumped it down the drain after being subsidized by various levels of government.

One last good act from them before they put themselves out of their misery and go bankrupt. Pierre Beaudoin and the rest of the family should be summoned to personally handcraft those ventilators.

Nobody said they'll do this for charity. They'll be paid for this work.

 

[Admiral Beez]

That's the least they could do for us after they sucked away billions from Canadians and dumped it down the drain after being subsidized by various levels of government.

As I said here Beaudoin did a great job for Bombardier and its shareholders. No one forced Ottawa, Ontario and Quebec to give it taxpayer freebies.