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.
While airlines and charter companies were scrambling to try and figure out what this all meant for them, the White House clarified that the decertification would only apply to newly delivered jets, allowing existing planes to continue flying.
Current operators are breathing a sigh of relief but, there is still plenty of confusion around all this. Aircraft are certified based on their specific type. A Bombardier Global Express built last year and one built tomorrow are the same plane as far as the FAA is concerned (or at least should be concerned) so it is unclear how this decertification will work in practice.
We’ve still got more questions than answers at this point but I’m hoping that major impacts to current operators have been mitigated. Hopefully we get more clarity, or the restrictions are lifted altogether, soon.
Summary
President Donald Trump took to social media announcing a decertification of all Canadian made aircraft. The White House later clarified that the decertification would apply only to newly built aircraft, which is a problem in and of itself. We have more questions than answers at this point and I’m sure this isn’t the end of the story.
I just checked Live ATC, haven’t seen any cancelations of any CRJ flights.
The White House issued guidance this morning saying the decertification is for newly delivered aircraft only. While there are a ton of flaws with this, it means that existing CRJs can keep flying.