Toronto’s Downsview plant to continue production of Q series under new owners Longview
The De Havilland brand will take flight once again, as its parent company announced the re-launch of the Dash 8 aircraft program following its newly minted purchase from Bombardier Inc.
Longview Aviation Capital Corp. unveiled the de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd., its new subsidiary that will operate the turboprop family from the Downsview Plant in Toronto where the de Havilland brand became established in Canada.
It paid $300 million for the rights to Bombardier’s Q Series of aircraft, originally known as the Dash 8, for about $250 million after liabilities, fees and closing adjustments.
The sale also includes the de Havilland trademark and Bombardier’s full Dash 8 program, composed of the 100, 200 and 300 series, all turboprop regional jets which seat 40 to 90 passengers.
B.C.-based Longview’s subsidiary Viking Air Ltd. makes turboprop aircraft such as the Twin Otter and the Beaver, workhorses of the Canadian North, as well as holding the rights to all out-of-production de Havilland aircraft.
David Curtis, chairman of the Longview, said in a statement de Havilland Aircraft would take on board more than 1,200 employees from Bombardier.
Bombardier employees currently associated with the production, support and sales of the all the Dash 8 program are joining Longview.
The Q400 will continue to be manufactured at its Downsview facility in Toronto under Longview’s management. The Downsview site was sold by Bombardier earlier this year to the Public Sector Pension Investment Board but, under the terms of a lease with the new owners, production will remain on-site until at least 2021. There is also potential for that lease to be extended.
Curtis has previously pledged to keep all manufacturing already in Canada within the country and to maintain supply chains for the Q400 series that currently stretch from China to Ireland to Mexico.
Bombardier manufactured roughly 28 to 30 Q400 aircraft annually at its Downsview property.
Money-losing Bombardier sold the unit as well as the real estate as part of a strategic review that has seen it assets to raise cash.
The Downsview airfield was built in the late 1920s to test aircraft made by de Havilland, a corporate name that dates back nearly a century with roots in Britain’s early aviation history.
