So just behind you we have the Global 8000. This is the fastest airplane since the Concorde. Eric, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today.
Absolutely. This is definitely the most impressive backdrop we've ever had in the podcast. Let me tell you a secret. The secret weapon of Bombardier is...
How have you seen the demographics changing of the customer of an aircraft?
I got people that are knocking on our door at 27 years old.
There actually is still a cap on how many aircrafts you can really produce in a given year. And I've seen people literally fight over trying to have their aircraft delivered as soon as possible.
Yeah, we invented the regional jet business.
I think it's very rare that something so excellent and luxurious can also be incredibly functional. I left Monday morning. I was back at home on Thursday, did four countries, four cities in Europe and was back here. So on a commercial flight, it would have taken me two weeks probably.
Would you happen to have some tips for being a great guest on board an aircraft?
Great guest on board. Make sure you don't, you know...
Around the world with your host, the Thetard Guy. We welcome you back to the Guy Podcast, sharing stories of excellence with those in the know, for those who just know.
Eric, thank you so much for taking the time to be here today.
Yeah, absolutely. Happy to have you here.
I say that as if you came here. I actually came to you in Montreal. So we are now at the Bombardier headquarters.
For the listeners today who are listening and not watching, I urge you to switch to video and see the beautiful plane behind us. This is definitely the most impressive backdrop we've ever had in the podcast. So thank you so much.
Thank you. You're welcome.
And thank you so much for having me here.
Can you actually, just to dive into this, can you tell us where we are and what's sitting behind us as we record today?
So we are in Montreal as you said. You know, this is the headquarters of Montreal is right next door, but here we're at the completion center. So this is basically where we do the completion and the finish of the interior of the Globals. The Globals are built in Toronto, the plane that flies. We flew it to Montreal. So just behind you, we have the Global 8000. The Global 8000 is actually our flagship airplane. This is the airplane that actually flies faster than any other airplane. This is the fastest airplane since the Concorde.
And we're very proud of that, of course. And this is an airplane that can fly like 18 hours with people on board. And you know, this is the flagship of Bombardier and we believe that it's also the flagship of the whole industry.
Well, this plane is especially meaningful to me and to my audience listening from Kristad because it's also the largest airplane that can land in Kristad's airport, Sun airport. That airplane has a lot of capability. You know, we talk about the range,
but because of all the wing technology too, that airplane is capable of landing in tricky places like Stat as an example, that are very difficult airports, but that airplane is able to do it.
Honored to be here, honored also to have worked with you and your incredible team on the launch of the 8000 when we were in London. And I was able to experience the plane firsthand and tell the story of the aircraft which needs absolutely no introduction. I think Bombardier has become an incredible global brand and an ambassador of excellence first and foremost of incredible manufacturing but also of Canada in many ways. Can you tell us more about how Bombardier came to be and came to become an icon globally but particularly on behalf of Canada?
We have a long history. The company was founded by Joseph Armand Bombardier in 1942. So that's a long time ago. But we were not in the airplane business at the start. You know, Joseph Bombardier was an inventor here in a very small town about an hour and a half, two hours from Montreal called Valcourt. And he invented the snowmobile and with a lot of different patents and eventually that leads to the Ski-Doo which has become very popular and are still being produced today.
Ski-Doo is a brand of snowmobile.
It's the brand, the brand of Bombardier. So that was our brand, how we branded it in the probably 40s, 50s, late 50s, early 60s. So it's a long history and that's how the name Bombardier came up. But at the same time, unfortunately, in the, you know, he was in his 60s, Joseph passed. And basically one of his sons took over for a couple of years, but his son-in-law Laurent,
took over in the late 60s. And Laurent was young, he was in his late 20s,
became the CEO of a company of about 10 million dollars of revenue at the time. But Laurent had that spirit of an entrepreneur, that entrepreneurial spirit also, and brought the company from 10 million to eventually 20 billion dollars at some point. But the journey was very interesting. In the late 60s, early 70s, he bought a competitor called Quebec,
in a little town also called La Pocatière. But then the oil crisis started in the early 70s, as you know, price of oil just went through the roof. So they at the time, they've produced too many Ski-Doos, people were not buying because, you know, the inflation was going on, going up very quickly. So he decided to bring all the production within one site. So he was left with one production manufacturing facility too many. But being a real entrepreneur, he saw an opportunity in Montreal. Montreal were doing, have built a metro already, one of the first metros, you know, in North America on the ground. And he decided that, you know, they needed more cars. He went to see the mayor of Montreal who've never produced a train before and he said we could do it here in La Pocatière with the bank on his side supporting him.
And so he had amazing workers in La Pocatière that were, but never built a train, you know, very, very capable. So Laurent went through France because these guys were only speaking French. We're in Quebec, you know, and especially in smaller towns, the first language is French and people speak English in Montreal but not in the little town for most at these times. So he went to Europe, hired a significant group of engineers that speak French, brought them here. They worked with the workers at the plant and they built 1700 cars for the metro of Montreal.
Very successfully, on time, made money, and then, you know, the rest is history. So we became at some point the biggest passenger train producer in the world.
And, you know, we made acquisitions after that. We bought Alstom. We won in 1980 a major contract in New York. So after Montreal learning and everything. So this is real entrepreneurship when not being afraid of taking risk and that spirit of entrepreneurship and being able to deal with a certain level of risk is still in our DNA today. So, and then, you know, we made money with the train business in 1986. He bought Canadair, you know, with the team, the management team at the time and this is how we got into aerospace. And Canadair had the Challenger product at the time which was already designed. So, and then we made a CRJ200 also which we invented the regional jet business in the early 90s. And then after we developed the Global and we bought Learjet also in the early 90s. So we made a series of acquisitions, you know, Learjet, the Avro Canada was the first one in '86 and also Short Brothers in Northern Ireland. And we became a very sizable company up to 20 billion dollars at some point in time. So I joined myself in the early 2000s, the company on the train side actually, but I had an aerospace background before that.
And ran the operations on the train side, then came back to aerospace to Bombardier and we've developed a series of products since then. I think we've probably either new product, completely new product or derivatives, we've made probably 35 in the last 35 years.
So we have that DNA of innovation that our founder Joseph Armand Bombardier had. So it's an interesting story because we've been able, despite today we're a company of 20 plus thousand people focused now just on aerospace because we spun off the Ski-Doo division. It's a different company which is called Bombardier Recreational Products today. And so I'm not the CEO of this company, but we also decided to focus on business jet and we also have a defense business part of that and an aftermarket, but that's what we're being focused on today.
So you briefly mentioned those iconic products that have created as a result of the incredible innovation that runs through the business. I know two off the top of my head that are very well known. The Challenger and the Global which is right behind us today.
Can you tell us more of some of those iconic brands and models?
First of all, we bought Learjet. Also, Learjet were the first business jet flying in the world in the early 60s. There's pictures when you go to Learjet in Kansas, you know, of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, you know, coming to pick up a plane. And so that's interesting. That's how the company started with Learjet. So we made that acquisition. Canadair there. And, you know, it's interesting because we also have a defense background. Canadair during the Second World War produced more than 16,000 airplanes for the effort at the time.
To support the effort. And then all these companies eventually evolved into commercial planes. So the most iconic product we still produce today are the Challenger. The Challenger was a game changer in the industry because it was a large cabin.
And, you know, that can do a lot more range than the normal airplane like the Learjet as an example. So, and then late 90s, Laurent, you know, decided with the team at the time to go further and then we invented the Global. So this was, you know, the first long range airplane, you know, capable of going from North America to Asia and flying in a lot of destinations, flying 6,000 nautical miles plus. So we did that. And of course, if I come back a little bit in the 90s, we invented the regional jet. That market segment did not exist. So we came out with a 50-seater and, you know, there's a lot of small cities in the world that don't need a 300-passenger airplane or even 150.
So we've produced thousands of those airplanes.
Here in Montreal actually, they're flying all around the world still today. We sold that division of commercial planes. And when I, you know, I became CEO in June 2020, just to, as I said earlier, to focus, but that's that spirit of innovation, of breaking through. And, you know, if you look on the train side, we've done the same thing. We're the one that built the car for the Eurotunnel as an example.
So it's part of our DNA, it's part of our DNA, innovating and breaking barriers.
So there's three things I'm really seeing as a throughline with everything you're talking about. It's the innovation, it's the craft, but also the family.
I think that when people see you sitting here, Eric Martel, the CEO of Bombardier, they see an incredible organization with incredible products. They can never imagine that something so huge like an aircraft business that's been in so many different sectors remains a family business.
Can you tell us more about that side of the business?
It's interesting and I don't even know how to explain that, but for a company of our size, we have that family spirit. You know, when you work at Bombardier, you're attached. It's like a family. The workers, the people are really dedicated. You know, they want the company to be successful, but there is that unique family spirit that you don't see in most of the corporation. You know, most of the corporation, it's a corporation. It translates with our employees.
But it also translates with our customers. Between my chairman and I, you know, we know most of our customers and we talk to them. And because buying a private jet is a unique experience, you know, it's almost, hey, you're buying a jet and I'm going to take care of you after you leave in service, you know, to make sure everything goes smooth. But it's just part of our DNA. We're very close and talk to our customers on a regular basis. Even if they don't buy a plane, we stay in touch like a family would do.
So it's not just a transactional relationship like a lot of corporations would do.
And I don't know, it's a unique thing we have and it's just part of our culture. I would say between the family aspect and between innovation, those are two things that really characterize who we are. And, you know, the family is still involved in the business. You know, they have four of our 12 board members are members of the family. You know, Pierre being the chairman and he has three of his cousins that are part of the team also. And things run so smooth. You know, it's an easy relationship. Everybody is there with the intent. It's not about ego. It's about doing the right thing for the company and doing the right thing for our employees and for our customers. That's what drives us.
There's one deep family note that I learned of today and noticed today at the delivery center that we're in. There's a room that I stepped through before coming down the stairs to see this beautiful plane behind us, which is the ceremony room which welcomes the customers of the jet and the people who are going to be flying with the aircraft back home to celebrate such a special moment.
Can you tell us more about that ceremony?
Now, this is, I think, a unique thing we do at Bombardier. We've been doing it for many years. So we have a room. When people come up here, we love when the principal comes here with his wife, with his kids, with his dad, his mom, the whole, it's a family thing. So they come here and sometimes, you know, we'll entertain them the night before. We'll do something special if they have time. But at least we do that ceremony and, you know, this is just welcoming our customer, having a glass of champagne sometimes only. And then we usually come to the airplane and usually we ask if they're okay to do it. We will bring a group of people that have built the airplane and they will address them. They will talk to them. They will have the chance to meet some of the people that really, you know, I don't know, installed the carpet or built the furniture or painted the plane. So we believe it's important, you know. So I think they make a contact. So our employees are also extremely proud of meeting, you know, the person that's going to fly the airplane they built.
And the customer also, the vast majority of them, they like to meet the worker that built their plane.
So it's a people thing, but we love it. It's again, it's part of our culture. It's part of our DNA and we love to create that little celebration because it's a big moment, you know. It's not like you buy an airplane every week. You buy a few in your life sometimes, sometimes only one. And we would like to make that moment unique.
I have a friend actually who bought his first plane recently, a Global 7500.
And when the 8000 came out, he was so excited and he wanted to switch the 75 for an 8000. And then he found out he could actually just upgrade the same aircraft.
So he was very happy about that. Can you tell us more about that? How that upgrade process works?
Oh, so it's unique. We call it a service bolt-on. So it's basically we take back in our service center because we have service centers all around the world. And people go with their 75 and we take, I don't know, less than 10 days to make some modification on the plane so that the airplane becomes an 8000.
So it's amazing. It's software change. A few mechanical parts need to be replaced and changed, but then the airplane gets an 8000 which goes faster. You get better cabin pressure, you know, so that you feel much more rested when you fly very long distance. And there's improvement on the noise level and on a few other things. So we're very proud of that. And a little bit more range also to 8,000 nautical miles.
I know that the range is very important to the aircraft.
For reasons people can understand very simply. The sound within the aircraft people understand very simply. There's one thing that I think made a lot of sense to me after I was explained it and that is the air pressure within the cabin.
Why is that so important to customers of the 8000?
I'm sure you've experienced if you go into a hotel and your hotel is at, I don't know, 3,000 meters or something like that,
the oxygen level is less. So even if you rest, you're going to feel tired still.
If you flew long distance on an airplane, a regular commercial airplane, usually we measure at 41,000 ft that you will be in the cabin at, call it 7,000 ft. So that's why sometimes when you do long distance on a plane you feel tired after that. If you fly on a Global, the Global at 41,000 ft in your cabin you're going to feel at 2,691, my engineer would say. So that's why, you know, you can fly 15, 16 hours and you will feel rested like if you slept in your own bed. So that's important because, you know, the people that are flying our plane are people that are looking for productivity and, you know, looking also, it's not just rock stars or people partying on the plane and that happens rarely. It's really, you know, people are chairmen, CEOs of global companies, you know, like ours and they need to be one day in Dubai, the next day in Singapore and then back in New York or something like that. So it makes you very, very efficient. You know, I was giving yesterday to someone the example about two, three months ago I went to Europe. I left Montreal. I had breakfast with my wife. I left something around 9:00, went to Sweden. So I arrived in the evening.
Did all kinds of meetings Tuesday in Sweden and then flew to have dinner with a customer in Milan on the Tuesday night. The next morning I was in Berlin and that evening I was in London for another dinner. I came back and had dinner with my wife on Thursday night. So I left Monday morning. I was back at home on Thursday and did four countries, four cities in Europe.
And was back here. So on a commercial flight it would have taken me two weeks probably to do the same thing or would have been just impossible. So these airplanes make you very efficient.
So for people that have global roles, you know, it makes it very useful. No pun intended.
Yeah. Yeah. I recently flew in a friend's Global 7500 for about a 5-hour flight and it really felt like time travel. I remember we were flying overnight and the pilot very kindly let us know that we might hit some turbulence soon and we were apparently going through that patch of turbulence and none of us felt anything.
And we look outside the window and we see the wings of the 7500 are actually flapping a little bit. The plane turned into a bird and it's getting rid of the turbulence entirely in the cabin.
Can you tell us more about that and how it works?
Let me tell you a secret. That's the secret weapon of Bombardier is the wing. My competitors do great planes also. But where we have a real differentiator is really with the wing. Our wing is very flexible to the point where, to your point, you can, you know, if there's turbulence you will feel it. Okay. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not going to exaggerate but you feel it much less. It's not like other airplanes are more like a sports car suspension, you know, if I make the comparison. So on the Global you will have much limited. The other day I flew, I was flying from Montreal to LA. This is a few months ago and over some mountains we had like real turbulence, like pretty heavy and I was looking through the window and I saw the same thing you did. I saw the wing like really moving long distance, you know, and I could feel it, but it was minimized by the wing quality. So that's why we always talk about a smooth ride on our Global and it's because of the technology, the flap and everything we have that makes a significant difference.
And I love the variety in aircrafts that I've seen depending on the owner's taste and how they customize the planes. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Loro Piana interiors that I've seen many times. I love the recent collaboration you did with Alisab as well.
Alisab Jr. was a guest on this podcast. We spoke about the beautiful aircraft and I haven't actually seen it in real life yet. I'm very excited to see it, but it's amazing. Can you tell us more about that? What's the creative process like with the clients?
So this is the, I would say the very, the delivery of course is an amazing moment but also what we call the specking of the airplane is an amazing moment also. A lot of our customers love doing that. Some of them come here and I don't know if you had a chance to tour where we do the specking but there's hundreds of wood colors, there's hundreds of different leathers or different tissues, carpets and things you can select. Sometimes it could be confusing too because there's too many and we're trying with our designer and sometimes we work with the designer also of the customer because they know their taste already. They talk together and then they come here and we already prepared, you know, some what makes sense, you know, the color they like and the different types. So this is a very fun moment because sometimes the whole family is there and it's funny because some people will do it in 30 minutes, some people will stay here two days if not more and they will even have other considerations after. So it depends on, you know, it varies a lot from one individual to another but it's a great experience. We're trying to make it fun. We're trying to make it a unique moment also. And I would say between this and the delivery of the plane, those are amazing moments.
Yeah. Very exciting. When I think of Canada now, I think of Bombardier. Maybe because I'm very exposed to the brand and I'm a big fan of the brand, but I do see that happening in circles around me as well. In a similar fashion to when people think Switzerland, they think watchmaking and they see that precision of watchmaking transcend into Swiss culture. I know there's an aircraft probably right behind us right now, so people can hear it. There's an aircraft parking I think right behind us.
We can hear the engines.
What does Bombardier mean to Canada? And what does Canada mean to Bombardier?
Yeah. But first of all, we bring to Canada a very unique industry. There's just very few countries in the world that can design, build an airplane and get it certified properly, you know. So there's a lot of countries that are trying and being safe and certified under the same norms than you would have in Canada or with EASA in Europe or with FAA in the US. Those are very high standards, you know, of safety and safety in our world is very important. So Bombardier brings to Canada that knowledge and capability which is very, very unique which we always want to preserve. You know, I said earlier we started from the military early days. The Avro Canada were involved in the World War II even World War I effort. So we preserved that over the years. It became more commercial airplane with time but we're the backbone of that. Okay. And if you look at Bombardier has about 13,000 employees now in Canada.
Another 7,000 all around the world because, you know, we have a global business. We have 5,300 airplanes flying in the world everywhere. I always laugh because I've never landed, and it's a true story, on an airport that there was not another Bombardier plane because I always fly on a Bombardier plane but there's always another one. I've went through crazy places, you know, in the middle of nowhere and there was always another Bombardier plane somewhere. So we have a lot of airplanes flying. So we're creating jobs in this country quite a bit. You know, I mentioned, you know, 13,000 Bombardier employees, but in Canada, our complete footprint with our suppliers, which is about 1,500 suppliers, is a total of 50,000 jobs. So those are high-skilled jobs, qualified, and we do have a defense division also that we're building right now and growing nicely. So that's what we represent for Canada. You know, we're a bit of a poster child for the country because we're known pretty much all around the world, you know, as an aircraft producer and aerospace company.
I think when people see that iconic maple leaf on products and on experiences, they make certain assumptions about the product being excellent. Very similar to, as I mentioned, that Swiss cross with Switzerland in a very different way, of course, but what would you say are the Canadian values people notice when they see that kind of connection?
It's interesting. So the great news is the people watching us will know now that Canada doesn't just do maple syrup but we also make airplanes.
