Bombardier under less pressure to ink deals at air show -executive

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Allison Lampert
ZURICH/MONTREAL July 6 (Reuters) - Canada's Bombardier Inc
BBDb.TO is under less pressure to ink new orders for its
CSeries jet at a major European air show next week after
receiving orders from Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) DAL.N and Air Canada
AC.TO , a senior executive said on Wednesday.
Those two deals for a combined 120 narrowbody planes enabled
Bombardier to surpass its own target of 300 CSeries orders by
the smaller CS100's entry into service this month. By contrast,
the company announced no orders for the jet at the Paris air
show in June of last year.
Bombardier executives will be attending Britain's
Farnborough air show next week, where planemakers regularly
publicize new orders.
"There was a lot of pressure from the industry looking at
this program, because early in the program there was a milestone
of 300 firm orders," Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President
Fred Cromer said in an interview in Zurich. "We have surpassed
that number, so from that standpoint the pressure's off."
After securing deals with the two legacy carriers, Cromer
said Bombardier would now like an order for the fuel-efficient
CSeries from a low-cost airline "to really demonstrate the
versatility of the aircraft."
Bombardier has held sales talks with other carriers
including Ethiopian Airlines.
Separately, the planemaker could announce certification of
the 130-seat CS300 jet for use in commercial flights at
Farnborough, though the final decision remains in the hands of
Transport Canada, according to one source, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The CS300 should be certified "soon," a company spokeswoman
said, but declined to specify whether it would be announced at
Farnborough.
Bombardier executives, who recently reached a $1 billion
investment deal with the province of Quebec for a stake in the
CSeries, will also meet with Canada's Innovation Minister
Navdeep Bains in Farnborough.
The company and federal government are in talks for a $1
billion federal injection in the plane program. But the Canadian
government has expressed concerns about Bombardier's dual-class
share structure that gives majority voting control to the
founding Bombardier-Beaudoin family.
The UK meeting is not expected to lead to a breakthrough in
the negotiations which have stalled, according to a separate
source familiar with the talks, who declined to be identified
because of the sensitivity of negotiations.
Bombardier could not immediately be reached to comment on
the status of talks.