FILE PHOTO: JetBlue Airways logo is displayed on a monitor in Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a terminal test in New York August 23, 2008. REUTERS/Joshua Lott
February 27, 2018
MONTREAL/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jet Blue Airways Corp <JBLU.O> met with Canadian planemaker Bombardier Inc <BBDb.TO> and also had plans to meet with Brazil’s Embraer SA <EMBR3.SA> this month, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters, in a signal that talks are picking up for the U.S. airline’s closely watched sales campaign.
Low-cost carrier JetBlue has previously said it is weighing whether to replace its fleet of about 60, 100-seater E-190 jets, in a campaign pitting Bombardier’s CSeries against its Brazilian rival’s latest model, the E190-E2.
JetBlue officials also met Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare at the company’s Montreal-area plant on Monday, said an industry source, confirming earlier media reports. The source said JetBlue had not finalized a deal with either planemaker.
A spokeswoman for Bombardier declined to comment on a sales campaign.
JetBlue said in a statement it is “exploring a full range of options from maintaining the current fleet to a full replacement with an alternative aircraft type.”
Embraer is determined to keep JetBlue as a key customer, while Bombardier wants to grow sales in the United States after a trade agency ruled the Canadian plane-and-train-maker could sell its 110-to-130 seat CSeries to American carriers duty-free following a dispute with Boeing Co <BA.N>.
The Feb. 17 email says “the Bombardier team was in to discuss product support and maintenance for its C Series. And later this month, we’ll have a chance to take a close-up look at the Embraer E2.”
It was not clear whether JetBlue already saw the E2 and a spokesman for Embraer could not immediately answer Monday night.
In January, JetBlue said it would prolong an internal review over the future of its fleet at a time of an evolving landscape for commercial aviation. Embraer is now holding tie-up talks with Boeing and Bombardier is working to complete a deal giving a majority stake in the CSeries to Airbus SE <AIR.PA>.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Alana Wise in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
