While the title on this story may seem pretty self explanatory, there are certainly more questions than answers in the president’s post.
Trump Bans Canadian Made Aircraft From the United States in Odd Social Media Post
While I typically try and avoid anything of a political nature here, this story has a major aviation angle. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social claiming that Canada is intentionally delating the certification of U.S. aircraft. I’ll let Trump do the talking here.
According to Trump, Canada is delaying the certification of Gulfstream’s G500, G600, G700, and G800 families of business jets. Because of this, Trump announced that he was “decertifying” the Bombardier Global Express and “all aircraft made in Canada”. In addition, the president is threatening a 50% tariff on any Canadian made aircraft sold into the United States.
Shortly after Trump’s post, Bombardier issued the following statement:
We have taken note of the post from the President of the United States to social media and are in contact with the Canadian government. Bombardier is an international company that employs more than 3,000 people in the U.S. across 9 major facilities, and creates thousands of U.S. jobs through 2,800 suppliers. Our aircraft, facilities and technicians are fully certified to FAA standards and renowned around the world. We are actively investing in expanding our U.S. operations, including a recent announcement in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Thousands of private and civilian jets built in Canada fly in the U.S. every day. We hope this is quickly resolved to avoid a significant impact to air traffic and the flying public.
What Happens Now?
If Trump’s post is to be taken at face value, then this would have a major impact on the regional operations of the ‘Big Three’ U.S. carriers, all of which operate Canadair Regional Jets. Should we expect mass cancellations of these flights tomorrow as the planes will no longer be certified to fly? This coming on the heels of a massive winter storm which caused days of disruptions will be a major headache for travelers, though some of them may rejoice.
According to FlightRadar24, there are more than 400 Canadian made aircraft operating in the United States tonight.
I’ve got to imagine that airlines and charter companies are scrambling tonight to try and figure out what this all means for them. After everything the operations folks have gone through the last few days, I feel for them with this last minute situation.
We’ve got more questions than answers at this point but I’m hoping that, even of the decertification takes place, we get a short term reprieve to allow airlines to make arrangements for the loss of these planes.
I’m just glad my flight on Saturday is on an Embraer.
Summary
President Donald Trump took to social media tonight to announce a decertification of all Canadian made aircraft. If this stands it will have a major impact on the regional operations of the Big Three U.S. carriers and many charter operators and private jet owners. We have more questions than answers at this point and I’m sure this isn’t the end of the story.