Bombardier suspends Railway and Aircraft production units in Canada

Montréal, Canada (Urban Transport News): Bombardier on Tuesday announced that in support of the recent mandates from the Governments of Quebec and Ontario to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will suspend all non-essential work at most of its Canadian based operations starting this evening at 11:59 pm until April 26, 2020, inclusively. This suspension includes Bombardier’s aircraft and rail production activities in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Employees impacted by these temporary shutdowns will be placed on furlough, as will corporate office employees whose support functions are less critical in the short-term. During this furlough period, Bombardier’s CEO and senior leadership team will forgo their pay, and the Chairman and members of Bombardier’s Board of Directors have agreed to forgo board compensation for the remainder of 2020. Bombardier is also suspending its 2020 financial outlook as it evaluates the impact of temporarily closing its Canadian operations, as well as other actions being taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pierre Beaudoin, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bombardier Inc. said:

Since the CoronaVirus outbreak, the company has been focused on keeping our employees safe, serving our customers to the best of our ability during these difficult times and taking the necessary actions to protect our business for the long term. In addition to the actions announced today, Bombardier has cut all discretionary spending, is continuing the work on closing the previously announced transactions and is pursuing additional measures to enhance liquidity.

Due to this decision, a total of 12,400 employees of Bombardier will be affected and they will be placed on unpaid leave during the period of suspension of production. The company may also face falling demand for new aircraft businesses due to the broader economic slowdown triggered by the novel coronavirus outbreak across the world. In February this year, Bombardier had announced the sell of its rail business unit to french firm Alstom SA in US$8.2 billion to deal with debts.