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Airbus, Quebec reach $1.2 billion investment deal for A220 jet program.

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Europe’s Airbus and Quebec on Friday said they have agreed to a $1.2 billion investment deal that would allow the Canadian province to remain in the loss-making A220 jet program until the venture is likely to turn profitable.

Airbus would invest $900 mln, while Quebec would put $300 million into the program, according to a statement from the province’s government.

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The investment would help the A220 program globally to support an increase in production, Benoit Schultz, chief executive of Airbus’ Canadian unit, told a press briefing. The A220 is built both at an Airbus plant in the Montreal area and at the Mobile facility in Alabama, Reuters reported.

The A220, previously known as the CSeries, is a 110- to 130-seater aircraft, a little smaller than Airbus’s mainstay A320 jet. Reuters reported on the deal earlier, citing sources.

The province has faced criticism for repeated investments in the program.

Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said the program should be profitable by the middle of the decade.

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Faury told reporters that COVID-19 weighed on cost-cutting efforts because it impeded production increases.

“We need volume to have these savings,” he said.

Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said the A220 program has promise to turn the corner and generates key jobs for the province, Canada’s aerospace hub.

In 2020, Canada’s Bombardier exited the program, the first all-new narrow-body jet in 30 years, after it was beset with delays and cost overruns.

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