Bombardier eyes regional airlines with CRJ900 jet

New Delhi, Sep 24 (UNI) Bombardier Inc, the world's third-largest maker of commercial aircraft, is actively negotiating with almost all airlines in India for its 86-seater CRJ900 regional jet and is looking for a favourable decision in a few months.

''We're particularly focussing on start-ups which plan to kick off regional flights shortly,'' said Mr Deepak Kaushal, head of sales at Bombardier Aerospace's regional aircraft division for Asia Pacific region.

Industry leaders say new airlines like Air Dravida, Star Airways, Leo Airways, Smile and Emerc are poised for take off in coming months.

The Civil Aviation Ministry recently introduced a separate category of permit for regional airlines in an effort towards equitable distribution of air passenger traffic across the country.

Mr Kaushal said even existing airlines like Air India, JetLite, Go Air, Indigo and SpiceJet have shown interest in Bombardier products.

More than 110 CRJ900s are flying worldwide. Bombardier officials say the next generation CRJ family of aircraft offers reduced fuel consumption, lower trip operating costs and lower airframe direct maintenance costs.

For instance, a CRJ900 operating in Indian environment will breakeven at 61 seats, if average stage length is 684 nautical miles, leaving profit potential for 25 seats.

Bombardier Inc is a global corporation headquartered in Canada.

Its revenues for fiscal year ended January 31 totalled 14.8 billion US dollars.

UNI