Toronto·Photos
Bombardier unveils new private jet assembly plant at Pearson airportThe Canadian aerospace firm Bombardier is in the midst of moving its aircraft assembly plant from Downsview Park to Pearson Airport, and CBC Toronto got a sneak peak of the new facility.
$670M facility replaces Downsview site and will employ more than 2,000 workers, company saysCBC News
· Posted: Jan 23, 2024 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours ago
Private jets are now in production at Bombardier’s new $670-million aircraft assembly plant at Pearson Airport. It replaces the company’s existing plant at Toronto’s Downsview Park. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)The Canadian aerospace firm Bombardier is in the midst of moving its aircraft assembly plant from Downsview Park to Pearson Airport, and CBC Toronto got a sneak peak of the new facility.
The company describes the $670 million assembly plant as the most advanced private jet manufacturing facility in the world.
Bombardier’s Global 7500 business jet is being assembled at the new plant. The company says it is the fastest and longest-range private jet on the market, and it sells at a list price of $78 million. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)”This is what I love, you built this facility on your own, without taxpayers’ money, which is just amazing,” Premier Doug Ford said Monday during an event at the plant.
Construction on the project began in 2019. Bombardier’s move from Downsview to the new site at the northwestern edge of Pearson began last summer and is due to be completed later this year.
It takes roughly a year from the start of a jet’s assembly at the Pearson plant until its interior finishings are completed at Bombardier’s location in Montreal. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)”It’s not something you can do over the weekend,” said Mark Masluch, Bombardier’s senior director of public relations, during a tour.
Most of the production work and about 1,200 of Bombardier’s 2,000 staff have already shifted to the new Pearson site.
Premier Doug Ford, centre, gets a tour of the new jet assembly plant from Bombardier CEO Éric Martel, right. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)This location is where the company assembles its Global 6500 series of private jets, as well as the Global 7500. The company says the Global 7500 is the fastest and longest-range private jet on the market, selling at a list price of $78 million.
At the plant’s 17 production stations, work is ongoing on aircraft in various stages of completion, from a bare central fuselage tube sitting atop a wing assembly, through the additions of stabilizers, the tail fins, landing gear and engines.
About 1,200 of Bombardier’s 2,000 staff at the Downsview assembly plant have already shifted to the new Pearson site. The move is to be complete later this year. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)It takes roughly a year from the start of a jet assembly until its interior finishings are completed in Montreal, said Masluch. He said the market for the private jets includes charter companies such as Netjets, heads of state and what he described as “high-net worth individuals.”
Bombardier purchases nearly $900 million worth of goods and services from Ontario suppliers each year, CEO Éric Martel said Monday in a speech at the new plant.
