Korean Air Receives Bombardier CS300

Korean Air Receives Bombardier CS300

Korean Air Receives Bombardier CS300. Bombardier delivered the first of the 10 CS300s to Korean Air on December 22, adding a third client to receive a member of the CSeries family and marking the 15th installment in general this year.

"Today we celebrate the delivery of our first C-Series aircraft with a GTF engine," says Soo-Keun Lee, CTO of Korean Air, who attended a delivery ceremony at the Bombardier factory in Mirabel, Canada.

The moment has been slow to arrive for the SkyTeam operator. Korean Air was one of the main initial supporters of the CSeries program, and announced the commitment to order 10 CS300 with 10 options at the Paris Air Show in 2011.

Last February, Korean Air revealed plans to receive seven CS300s in 2017, which would represent up to a fifth of the original delivery target of 35 Bombardier aircraft this year.

But the durability issues that forced design changes with the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G turbofan reduced the pace of CSeries deliveries. In September, Bombardier updated the delivery target to 20-22 CSeries aircraft before the end of the year. On December 18, Bombardier reduced the target to 20 deliveries.

Bombardier now has less than nine days to deliver five more aircraft to meet the 2017 target. "This is a very important milestone for the CSeries program because it is our breakthrough in the rapidly growing Asian market, and we are honored to have Korean Air Lines as our brand's ambassador to the region," says Fred Cromer, president Commercial Aircraft of Bombardier.