TOKYO — — Canada's Bombardier Inc., the world's third-largest maker of civil aircraft, does not expect a large impact on earnings from problems with its Q400 turboprop that have affected airlines globally, a company official said on Friday.
Bombardier said 85 of 160 Q400 aircraft around the world have been grounded after landing gear on Q400s flown by Scandinavian Airlines Systems collapsed on touchdown in two separate incidents over the past week.
Japan's All Nippon Airways Co., one of the airlines affected, suspended all flights using Q400 aircraft on Thursday but said it resumed most of them on Friday.
“The impact on our results – we believe this won't have a large impact,” Bert Cruickshank, a director of industry & airline communications at Bombardier, told reporters in Tokyo. “We are responding very quickly to the situation.”
Bombardier Inc.
Bombardier, which is also the world's top train maker, reported a quarterly loss last month as it booked a big write-off on the value of its investment in troubled Metronet.
But Bombardier's aerospace business strengthened. The unit, which manufactures Learjets, CRJ regional jets that seat up to 145 passengers and turboprop aircraft, shrugged off the subprime debt problems that have roiled U.S. markets.
Todd Young, vice president at Bombardier, said the two accidents that occurred over the past week were regrettable and the company was working closely with operators.
Bombardier said a piston that deploys or retracts landing gear on its Q400 turboprop is the focus of inspections ordered after two crash landings that resulted in grounding planes around the world.
“Bombardier's objective is to work as quickly as possible with our operators to complete the inspection on those aircraft taken out of service and to provide replacement parts if required so that the aircraft can get back into service.”
Mr. Young also said he wants to meet with Japanese transport ministry officials during his visit, which is his fifth to Japan so far this year, but no plans have been confirmed.
In March, Young visited Japan to apologize for an incident, involving an ANA flight to Kochi airport in western Japan.
Since the start of the fiscal year, Bombardier's aerospace division boosted its order backlog 77 per cent, to a record $18.2-billion, and orders more than doubled from the first half of last year to 187 aircraft from 77, with much of the growth coming in the business jet market, where orders rose by half from the year-earlier quarter to 103.
