Bombardier Sold 5 Jets To Iraqi Airways, But It's Still Far Behind Boeing And Airbus

Iraqi Airways has placed a firm order for five Bombardier CS300 commercial jets, with options for 11 more, it announced today at the Dubai Air Show.

Nonetheless, it's a good sign for Bombardier, which launched the CSeries family of jets as a challenger to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.

The Canadian company predicts that nearly 7,000 jets in the 100- to 150-seat segment will be delivered over the next two decades, and it wants to build half of them.

Bombardier says the CSeries will be 20% more efficient than the competition, a huge selling point for cash-strapped airlines facing high fuel costs. And it's quiet, which makes it well-suited for flying into urban airports.

So far, it has taken orders and commitments from sixteen airlines and lessees for 419 CSeries planes, including 177 firm orders.

Those are moderately good numbers, but Bombardier is still far behind the established competition, and it's not making up any ground. At the Dubai Show this week, Boeing has already taken orders for up to 737 Max airplanes. Airbus has sold 40 A320s.

The size of the CSeries order - the 16 jets would be worth $1.26 billion - is tiny in comparison to some of the larger deals made in Dubai this week. Emirates alone has dropped $25.2 billion on 56 Boeing 777X jets, and another $20.2 billion on 50 Airbus A380s.