An Air Canada aircraft is unloaded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Enfield, N.S. on Wednesday, March 7, 2012.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Air Canada will firm up its order to buy C Series planes from Bombardier Inc. "soon," the airline's chief executive officer Calin Rovinescu said Friday.
The agreement to change its letter of intent to a firm order is subject only to final documentation and satisfaction of some conditions, Mr. Rovinescu said on a conference call on Air Canada's first-quarter financial results. Air Canada signed a letter of intent to purchase 45 planes and took options on 30 more.
He said the order announced by Delta Air Lines Inc. to buy as many as 125 C Series planes validates the decision by Air Canada, which was the first major North American carrier to reveal plans to buy the planes.
The Delta announcement "confirms that our confidence in this new next-generation technology was well placed and will benefit us well into the future," Mr. Rovinescu said.
The multibillion-dollar Delta order has also caught the attention of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG), a holding company that owns British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus of Ireland and low-cost Spanish carrier Vueling Airlines.
Willie Walsh, chief executive officer of IAG is "looking at it," an IAG spokeswoman confirmed.
The expression of interest comes one day after Montreal-based Bombardier announced the order for the C Series from U.S. giant Delta.
The firm order for 75 planes and options for 50 more is a major boost to the troubled C Series program, with observers saying it's a big vote of confidence in the all-new plane that can spark interest from other marquee airlines.
Mr. Walsh first expressed interest in the C Series airliner several months ago but his statements on Friday, following on the Delta order, show that the plane remains on his radar screen.
"It's not part of our plans at this stage but having said that there's plenty of scope in our future plans to look at the C Series as a potential aircraft within the IAG fleet," Mr. Walsh told reporters on a call Friday.
The Delta order would make a difference to the jet's popularity, Mr. Walsh said.
"It will give confidence to others to look at the aircraft … people wanted to see some significant hard orders before they wanted to commit to it," he said.
In an interview with the Irish Times in February, Mr. Walsh – a former Aer Lingus pilot – said he visited the C Series facility in the Montreal area in late 2014 and tried out the simulator.
The larger of the two existing C Series models – the CS300 – "is probably just on the small side for what we could use for the likes of Heathrow and Gatwick," he said, referring to the two main London-area airports.
"But one of the options we still haven't ruled out is the possibility of using the aircraft on the London City airport, where we have a fleet of 18 Embraer aircraft."
The C Series was also considered for Vueling in Barcelona, but timing and other issues blocked that option, he said.
With a file from Reuters