Bombardier buoyant despite trade hurdles, forecasts big demand for business jets

A Bombardier employee works on an aircraft in Dorval, Quebec on Monday, April 14, 2025. Bombardier Inc. reported a first-quarter profit of US$44 million, down from US$110 million a year earlier as its revenue rose. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

In the face of tariffs, trade uncertainty and a potential recession, Éric Martel is feeling upbeat.

The CEO of Bombardier Inc. pointed on Thursday to the business jet maker’s “strong start to the year” and a bright financial outlook that foresees higher revenue, profits and plane deliveries this year.

The Montreal-based company expects to crank out more than 150 aircraft in 2025 versus 146 last year.

It also anticipates a revenue boost of at least seven per cent to more than US$9.25 billion and an adjusted earnings leap of 14 per cent to more than US$1.55 billion.

The confident tone marks a striking change from three months ago, when Bombardier held off on giving financial guidance due to the uncertainty posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

“We need to exercise caution until we see how this all unfolds,” Martel said on Feb. 6, adding that he was “very disappointed” he could not provide targets.

Since then, Bombardier has achieved “tariff clarity,” he told analysts on a conference call Thursday.

Its planes comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, exempting them for now from 25 per cent tariffs, the chief executive said. “The whole process has been taxing, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

Bombardier’s book-to-bill ratio — a measure of orders received to sales completed, a key indicator of near-term demand for a company’s services — dipped only slightly to 90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Concern around 25 per cent duties on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. have plagued the aerospace sector in recent months, but Martel said any extra costs were factored into its forecast.

“Bombardier and business aviation as a whole are resilient. There are dozens if not hundreds of major international trade deals to be done around the world in the immediate future,” he said.

That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been turbulence — as recently as five weeks back.

“We had a number of order discussions stalled around the March time frame,” Martel said. “Uncertainty caused a short speed bump as everyone involved in transactions slowed down a bit to reassess the situation.”

Market concern has now zoomed out to the broader economic picture and the risk of sluggish demand for private jets whose list prices can range from US$26 million to US$78 million.

“So far, business jet flying activity and new jet demand have remained stable despite the global trade chaos,” said National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen in a note to investors.

In the meantime, Bombardier continues to invest in services — maintenance and repairs — which accounted for one-third of its revenue last quarter.

The developments range from a bigger service centre in Abu Dhabi to enhanced interior refurbishment for planes in Singapore.

Bombardier has roughly 5,000 planes in service across the globe, including about 2,000 Learjets, which it stopped producing in 2022.

As for the company’s budding defence division, the spectre of global conflict may work in its financial favour.

“The geopolitical tension that exists today, the pressure on most of the countries to increase their ... defence spending definitely is materializing,” Martel said.

Bombardier announced in March an order from Australia for two Challenger 650 planes to be used for surveillance and reconnaissance.

On Thursday, the company reported a first-quarter profit of US$44 million, down from US$110 million the year before.

Chief financial officer Bart Demosky noted higher “supplier-related costs” that will remain a headwind this year.

Revenue in the three months ended March 31 rose 19 per cent to US$1.52 billion from US$1.28 billion in the same period a year earlier, Bombardier said.

On an adjusted basis, it earned 61 cents US per share versus last year’s 36 cents US per share. However, the outcome notched lower than analysts’ expectations of 66 cents US per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.

The company’s order backlog ticked down one per cent to US$14.2 billion.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.