Bombardier has stretched every aircraft they have made. Our quick analysis is not meant to dismiss Boeing’s concern. So a CS500 had serious hurdles to overcome. Turn times cost money and airlines want to avoid that. Except it does mean slower loading and unloading for a longer fuselage. It would appear the CS500 would be a longer aircraft than the 737-800 or MAX8. Airlines want the revenue in the front, not the back. The CS500 could have four more seats in economy, and given the fares, this will not make it especially attractive. Given how US airlines are focused on upselling, this loss of potential revenue will be unattractive. Using Delta as a model, the CS500 will lose one seat in first plus and three more in premium economy. But a CS500 needs to grow from its current 29 rows to 34, which is 17.2% more. To be fair, the seat comfort on a putative CS500 will be an improvement over the 737. Obviously Delta and Bombardier could tweak the layout quite differently. The table below is our estimate of how the LOPA could look. To illustrate what that might entail, we use Delta as the benchmark. The only way the C Series can grow to about 160 seats and face off with the 737-800 or MAX8 will be a significant stretch. The CS300 offers a nice wide seat, but clipping that to the 17.5 inch found on a 737 will not provide enough room for six abreast. Look at the layout on the two CS300s in service. But there are other limits to a stretch that relate to cabin width. This means no wing changes are necessary to stretch the aircraft. We understand the wing on the C Series has proven stronger than expected. After all Bombardier was thrashing about looking for orders and Boeing was not threatened.Ī potential CS500 will be a stretch of the CS300. No doubt Boeing heard about that back then and dismissed the notion. We are reliably informed that Delta expressed interest in a three-member C Series family as early as 2011. Boeing describes the Delta order as the starting point for Bombardier’s threat. The C Series is a five-across cabin compared to the six-across 737. In the ITC documents Boeing talks up a CS500 as the outcome they anticipate being the growing threat. The fracas between Boeing and Bombardier seems focused on a fear at Boeing that Bombardier could become another Airbus.
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