Image: Bombardier
Bombardier announced on Thursday that it intends to cut approximately 5,000 positions across the organization as part of a plan to “further streamline, lean out and simplify the company.” The staff reductions will take place over the next 12 to 18 months and Bombardier says it expects the move will save the company around $250 million annually by 2021. The announcement came as part of a larger statementregarding Bombardier’s third-quarter results.
The company also announced plans to sell several “non-core” assets, including its Q series aircraft program and its Business Aircraft’s flight and technical training activities unit. The Q series and de Havilland trademark are going to Longview Aviation Capital Corp. subsidiary Viking Air for $300 million. Viking builds new-generation de Havilland Twin Otters and is planning to resume production of an updated version of the CL-415 water bomber. Both designs were acquired from Bombardier. The Q400 that comes with this deal is a steady selling regional turboprop that seats up to 90 passengers. Since it shed majority stake in the CSeries airline to Airbus earlier this year, Bombardier’s aerospace division has now shrunk to include only regional jets and business jets, which share the same fuselage. CAE is picking up the training business for $645 million, along with spending an additional $155 million for the monetization of royalties from the business. Both sales are expected to close in the second half of 2019.
“With today’s announcements we have set in motion the next round of actions necessary to unleash the full potential of the Bombardier portfolio,” said Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare. “During the earnings and cash flow building phase of our turnaround, we will continue to be proactive in focusing and streamlining the organization, and disciplined in the allocation of capital.”
