Smaller RJ Market Bigger Than Anticipated

Bombardier's Rod Sheridan, part of the company's asset management division, says the after market for the 50-seat RJ is much stronger than anticipated and, in fact, he would not have predicted the increasing interest among corporate operators. "Bombardier and Embraer did the right thing," he said. "We took our foot off the accellerator and aloud the secondary market to develop." He noted that the market for the 50-seater is very tight noting that Northwest did not take a handful of aircraft which ended up finding homes as Challenger 850s.

The strategy, he said, is not to try to place aircraft with existing customers but to find new operators for the type. In addition to a new Canadian charter operator for the type as well as ALMA in Mexico, he is working on sales in Russia and in many other parts of the world. Six aircraft have gone into the corporate market and two to the freight market, which he anticipates will grow once the concept is proven by West Air's operation with the Norwegian postal service. It also found new markets in Africa. "We just put a 20,000 cycle aircraft into the corporate market," he said. "The freighter market is not huge because the values are still high but it is getting bigger. When you have a small package freighter than can go 2000 miles in range, you eliminate connections. That should have a big effect four to five years from now." For a complete report see the next issue of Regional Aviation News.