Bombardier looks to expand capacity with new Montreal-area manufacturing centre

Jet planes are assembled at Bombardier's aircraft assembly centre in Mississauga, Ont., Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

Bombardier says it will build a new 126,000-square-foot manufacturing centre west of Montreal to respond to growing demand for its business aircraft.

The company says the facility in Dorval, Que., will cost about $100 million and is expected to open before the end of 2027.

David Murray, the executive vice-president for manufacturing, IT and Bombardier Operational Excellence System, said the new plant would be about the size of two football fields and would expand the company’s manufacturing footprint.

“We’ll be able to bring more efficiency to the way we’re producing the aircraft,” he told reporters at the existing facility in Dorval, where the company assembles Challenger jets. “It’s also going to set us up to look more forward and respond to the future demand we have.”

He declined to say how many more planes the company would be able to produce after the plant opens, but said Bombardier has successfully increased its volume over the past five years.

The new facility will be constructed near its existing facilities in western Montreal and is expected to create some 330 jobs.

Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette was present to announce a $35-million repayable loan from an Investissement Québec program to back the project.

Fréchette told journalists that supporting the expansion of Bombardier’s facilities will generate significant economic benefits for the province’s aerospace supply chain.

“The whole of Quebec will be mobilized thanks to this investment and expansion, and the economic benefits will be considerable,” she said.

She highlighted the importance of aerospace as “a motor of growth and a motor of wealth creation,” adding that Bombardier alone accounted for five per cent of the value of the province’s total exports.

In 2024, the sector generated more than $22 billion in sales and employed 43,000 people in Quebec, she said.

The president and CEO of the Montreal-based company, Éric Martel, said last November that strong international demand had led Bombardier to consider increasing its production rate, potentially resulting in new hires at the Dorval plant, where the Challenger 3500 business jet is assembled.

At the time, Martel had noted investments may be necessary to carry out its plan.