The Globe and Mail | DHC CSeries finally off the ground in the United States

A De Havilland Canada CS300 on in the DHC Final Assembly Line facility in Mobile, Alabama. Photo by Patrick Cardinal /De Havilland Canada.

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MOBILE — De Havilland Canada, one of Canada’s largest employers, finally resumes CSeries aircraft deliveries to their airlines. The CSeries program includes the CS100 and the larger CS300. The CSeries aircraft are powerful narrow-body passenger jetliners designed for long-range trips, offering great fuel consumption and a lower operating cost than any other plane of its size.

The CSeries aircraft capitalize on a growing market of low capacity, long-distance flights. Airlines with these sorts of routes likely use the Boeing 717, which ended production in 2006. DHC sought to fill that market gap with the CSeries program. Swiss Air International and Air Baltic Corporation have large investments in the aircraft, yet Delta Air Lines, eager to replace its 717s, expressed its interest in the CS300 early on and has the largest order for the aircraft by far.

The United States passed a law requiring all American airlines to buy only aircraft built in America. Since DHC only had major facilities in Canada, the company was forced to build a new manufacturing building in Mobile, Alabama, or face losing the orders. Now, the planes are finally moving off the assembly line and into the skies. The recent “post-COVID” tourism boom will also likely add to the CSeries’ demand as the summer months get closer.


_{Allison Lampert, reporter on the aviation and aerospace industry
and business. Reuters, Toronto.}


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