The very significant decision was expected for several months: the Canadian group Bombardier sold its remaining shares in the airliner program launched with the name of CSeries and then renamed Airbus A220 to the European manufacturer and the government of Quebec. Following this sale, Airbus now owns 75% of Airbus Canada and the Quebec government the remaining 25%. Bombardier receives $591 million from this operation, “net of adjustments, of which US$531M was received at closing” specifies the company who underscores its “release of future funding capital requirement to Airbus Canada”. As part of this transaction, Airbus, via its wholly owned subsidiary Stelia Aerospace, has also acquired the A220 and A330 work package production capabilities from Bombardier in Saint-Laurent, Quebec. Finally, it is expected that the Government’s stake will be redeemable by Airbus in 2026 - three years later than planned when the Airbus Canada limited partnership was created in July 2018.

For Bombardier, the $591 million will help the reduction of the debt accumulated since the launch of the CSeries program, renamed A220, twenty months ago. But this might not be enough and further changes could occur in Bombardier’s aviation business such as with the ongoing negotiations with Textron.

At the end of January 2020, the A220 program reached 658 total cumulative net orders.