On February2,2015 Chorus Aviation announced that it had signed an agreement with Bombardier Aircraft to buy 13 Q400 NexGen aircraft with an option to buy 10 more.The firm order is valued at $424 million US and could increase to $758 million US with the options.Chorus also announced a maintenance agreement that will extend the life of their Dash8-300 aircraft by 50% or15 years.The agreement covers a minimum of 19 aircraft and will start in early 2017.It is not known how many aircraft this will eventually cover but it is known that Bombardier has firm orders for 534 Q400 aircraft.The Dash8-300 is a top performing turboprop and has been around for two decades.The order size for Dash8-300 aircraft should be somewhat smaller.This will make for a sizeable maintenance business arising from the Dash8-300s. Chorus adds that they are the world's largest operator of Dash 8s;this new agreement will extend the life of their Dash-8s by up to 15 years.The announcement did not say whether the agreement applied to the Dash8-100s.
The Program
The Dash8-300 is an efficient turboprop that holds 50 passengers.It is well-suited to short and medium haul which makes it perfect for regional aircraft.Chorus says that it will put out a Service Bulletin for operators to read and follow.Chorus will also arrange for the replacement of some structural and systems compoents.It does not say if Bombardier personnel will play a part in this program.But it is known that Chorus has a large and well-run maintenance program in Halifax;also Chorus just bought an expert maintenance facility called Telesys.Chorus has been gradually building a maintenance arm to their operation and this will be even bigger by early 2017 when this agreement takes place.It is very likely that by then the agreement will be extended to the Dash8 -100s as well.It is clear that by 2017 Chorus will start to bring in significant revenues from this operation.
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