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Bombardier’s C-Series is a huge hit . . . for Airbus - CPA Canada
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- Bombardier’s C-Series is a huge hit . . . for Airbus
Bombardier’s C-Series is a huge hit . . . for Airbus
10.21.2022 | PETER SHAWN TAYLORExploring why so many great Canadian innovations end up in someone else’s backyard
Attention patriotic Canadian innovators: this is going to hurt.
At a splashy ceremony at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport last year, dignitaries and corporate executives took turns lavishing praise on the Airbus A220 as Air France took possession of the first of the 60 148-seat passenger jets the airline has ordered.
“This new aircraft with an unparalleled energy performance represents a major asset for Air France,” gushed Benjamin Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, pointing to its industry-leading reductions in emissions and fuel use. “It is not just any plane. It’s a new series of Airbus, an A220. And an A220 operated by Air France,” enthused Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the French minister of transport. “In other words: the quintessence of French success and excellence.”
Truth be told, this quintessence of French success and excellence isn’t actually French at all. As recently as 2018, the A220 was known as the C Series jet. And, back then, it was the pride of Canadian innovation—a product conceived by a Canadian business titan, designed by Canadian engineers and heavily backed by Canadian taxpayers. And yet, despite the aircraft’s obvious competitive advantages, Montreal-based Bombardier was unable to sell its brilliant new idea to the world. Instead, it ended up selling the entire concept to a foreign company for a song.
The story of how Canada’s star-crossed C Series jets became the wildly successful Airbus A220—aka the glory of France—is a tale that lays bare this country’s chronic problems in the innovation economy. As a country, we habitually underinvest in R&D. And, when domestic champions like Bombardier do emerge, they often prove unable to turn their great ideas into commercially successful, globally dominant businesses. As Canada looks to capitalize on a host of new technological breakthroughs in the green economy, what lessons can we learn from this national humiliation? And how can CPAs help with the transition?
