Qatar Airways eyes Bombardier jet order soon

Qatar Airways plans to place a large business-jet order with Bombardier "soon", the companies have said. Qatar Executive, the carrier’s business-jet unit, already flies six Bombardier business jets, including three Global 5000 models and three Challenger 605s. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker declined to specify the size of the planned order at a speech on Thursday in Montreal. Bombardier, which is developing the CSeries narrow-body jet to compete with the smallest commercial planes produced by Boeing and Airbus, said sales of its business jets increased 79 percent last year to 191. The planemaker’s CEO, Pierre Beaudoin, declined to specify the size of Qatar’s order, which Al Baker said would be placed “soon.” The third-largest Middle Eastern carrier, Qatar Air shelved plans to buy Montreal-based Bombardier’s CSeries narrow-body aircraft, Al Baker said last month, and will consider a purchase later. The jet has a lot of potential, Al Baker said at the time. Qatar has delayed an initial public offering once planned for this year as a sovereign debt crisis in Europe sapped global growth. The airline wants to raise cash as it expands the fleet to establish Doha as a long-haul hub connecting North America and Europe with high-growth economies in Asia.