Bombardier announced on Sunday it will manufacture a new series of regional jets at the company's facilities in Quebec.
The aerospace giant announced the launch of the new CSeries regional jets at London's famed Farnborough Air Show. The plane will be the "greenest aircraft in its class," according to the company.
Ben Boehm, the director of the CSeries program, told Â鶹´«Ã½net Sunday afternoon that the plane's fuel efficiency will make it attractive to airlines suffering from soaring jet fuel costs.
"We can beat (the closest competitor) by 20 per cent, in terms of fuel burn ... That's a huge investment in savings for airlines," he said.
The company noted it chose Quebec as the final assembly facility because of the area's skilled aerospace workforce and its established aerospace education system.
"We had a number of contenders in the United States," said Boehm.
"We felt the best choice was to go into a place where the labour pool, especially in the long term had great training opportunities."
Last week, Bombardier machinists voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new tentative agreement. The deal was contingent on the new planes being built in Quebec.
The CSeries wings will be designed and manufactured in Belfast. Parts of the fuselage and cockpit will be manufactured in Saint-Laurent, Que., and the company's Mirabel plan will be responsible for final assembly.
Bombardier says it has already signed a letter of interest with Germany's Lufthansa for as many as 60 aircrafts. They will be sold for US$46.7 million each. The first planes should be ready for delivery by 2013.
"The CSeries family of aircraft clearly meets our stringent requirements for sustainable fleet development, both in terms of environmental and commercial requirements, and flexibility for the future," said Lufthansa spokesperson Nico Buchholz in a press statement on Bombardier's website.
With files from The Canadian Press
