Sonaca to benefit from Airbus’ participation in Bombardier’s C Series

The fact that Airbus will control the production and sales of the C Series programme of the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier is “excellent news for Sonaca“, commented Bernard Delvaux, CEO of the aerospace construction company based in Gosselies, in Le Soir and La Libre Belgique this Wednesday.

“We have been part of this programme since its launch: we have designed and produced the slats of the two models of the aircraft,” a medium-haul aircraft with 100 to 150 seats, says Bernard Delvaux in Le Soir. “With the advantage of being ‘single source’, which means we are the only suppliers of these elements.”

“If this agreement with Airbus generates the expected success, we can anticipate an increase in the output of our production lines,” said the CEO of Sonaca, which talks about 100 deliveries per year in three or four years, for about 30 this year. “Everything that is good for Airbus is also good for us,” he concludes.

For Pierre Sonveaux, President of Sonaca SA and of the Skywin Competitiveness Cluster, “this means that an important part of the work is secured in Gosselies“.

By taking a controlling share in the Bombardier C Series programme, “Airbus has made sure that the technology, which could have fallen into the Chinese hands, will remain here,” Bernard Delvaux also told in La Libre Belgique. “This prevents the Chinese from moving into a higher gear.”

And if the C Series does not reach the expected production level because of the competition of Embraer, this will not affect Sonaca, which is supplying slats for both manufacturers.