Bombardier Deletes 5,000 Restructuring Jobs

The Canadian carrier and aircraft company Bombardier will cut 5,000 jobs worldwide and sell its old turboprop line to "streamline" operations, said Thursday the company in trouble.

The 7% reduction in its workforce across the organization will occur over the next 12 to 18 months, while key members of the aerospace engineering team will be redeployed to its business areas.

The cuts will focus on the aerospace industry and will reach 3,000 workers across Canada, company spokesman Simon Letendre told AFP. Bombardier has had to cut more than 15,000 jobs in its aerospace and rail divisions worldwide since 2015.

The Montreal-based group also announced the sale of "non-core assets" totaling approximately $ 900 million, including the Q-Series turboprop aircraft program and the de Havilland trademark, which was sold for about $ 300 million to a Canadian investment fund.

For its part, CAE, a flight simulator and training company, has agreed to take over the Bombardier Business Aircraft Flight Training segment, which is expected to generate $ 800 million in royalties.

The announcement of the restructuring took place when the company announced a net profit of $ 167 million in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $ 11 million a year earlier.

"We continue to make solid progress in executing our turnaround plan," said Alain Bellemare, Bombardier's chief, about the restructuring effort.

"With today's announcements, we have set in motion the next round of actions needed to unleash the full potential of Bombardier's portfolio," he said in a statement, adding that the company "will continue to be proactive by focusing and streamlining the organization".

Addressing analysts during a conference call, Bellemare has been optimistic about the company's prospects.

"We are going through a major turning point," he said. "And overall, if you look at what we have done so far, we have positioned the company very well for the next phase."

Good news on profits

The decision to sell the Q Series range was taken "because we believe that there is a better owner than us to maintain this program".

He stated that he hoped to "see more suppliers move to reduce costs" on his other line of regional aircraft, the CRJ.

Shipments of the CRJ and Q400 series for the quarter totaled only five aircraft, while net orders totaled 11.

The company's new Global 7500 aircraft, the largest and longest business jet on the market, is now certified aeronautical, paving the way for its commissioning in December.

Excluding one-time and non-recurring items, Bombardier posted quarterly earnings of four cents per share, higher than the consensus of analysts who expected a gain of two cents.

This solid profit was reduced to $ 3.6 billion, despite a 5% drop in quarterly sales compared to the same period last year.

For the full year, Bombardier expects revenues of approximately $ 16.5 billion, at the lower end of the range.

To make the difference, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer decided to sell (50.01%) the control of its subsidiary dedicated to the CSeries aircraft, now known as the A220, to the European giant Airbus, in exchange for the new aircraft. use of commercial and marketing resources of Airbus to lift costs. CSeries sales. The transaction was finalized in July.

This partnership also helped avoid the heavy obligations imposed by the US Department of Commerce following a commercial complaint filed by the US competitor Boeing, by building CSeries aircraft for the US market in the Airbus plant at Mobile, Alabama.

Bellemare was hired in 2015 to support the company that had serious financial problems with the CSeries program. The Quebec government had to come to its rescue in 2015 with a billion-dollar bailout in return for a 16.44% stake in CSeries, leaving Bombardier with a stake of 33.55 %.

The CSeries, at its official launch in 2016, was the first new design in the 100-150-seat category for more than 25 years.

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