Business jet maker Bombardier checking for customer exposure to Russia sanctions

Bombardier’s Global 8000 (Photo: Bombardier Aerospace)

Canadian planemaker Bombardier said on Thursday Feb. 24 it is checking whether any of its customers could be subject to sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Bombardier Chief Executive Eric Martel, who spoke after laying out the business jet maker’s 2025 financial objectives to investors, said the company’s supply chain is not impacted by the crisis, but about five per cent or six per cent of deliveries traditionally come from customers in the region.

Martel said he did not know of any customers who are now facing sanctions, but acknowledged there are developments “every hour.”

“We’ll see what are the sanctions, and we may have, I don’t know, to terminate some of these agreements if there are sanctions on some of our customers,” Martel told reporters after the company’s investor day.

Corporate planemakers are capitalizing on a pandemic-fueled boom in demand for private aircraft, with global business jet flight sectors up 12 per cent so far this year compared with pre-pandemic January and February 2019, according to data research and consulting company WINGX.