Supplier Triumph suing Bombardier over Global 7000 jet

Aircraft supplier Triumph Group disclosed Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Bombardier, alleging it wasn’t paid what it is owed for work on the Global 7000 business jet.

They are allegations that the Montreal-based planemaker denies.

Triumph Group said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Bombardier failed to pay its Triumph Aerostructures unit “certain non-recurring expenses” during the development phase of the Global 7000.

Triumph is seeking $340 million “resulting from Bombardier directed changes to the original wing requirements for the Global 7000 program, as well as Bombardier’s, delays, disruptions, acceleration and interference in connection with its contract with Triumph Aerostructures,” Triumph said in the filing.

The lawsuit was filed in the Quebec Superior Court, District of Montreal, Triumph said in the filing.

Triumph, which operates facilities at 3258 S. Hoover and in Wellington, said it continues to support the Global 7000 program.

But Bombardier said in an e-mail Thursday to The Eagle that Triumph’s claim is “without merit” and that Bombardier may seek its own claims against Triumph for Global 7000 delays.

“Bombardier intends to firmly defend its position,” Bombardier Business Aircraft spokesman Mark Masluch said in the e-mail. “At the appropriate time, Bombardier will assert its major claims against Triumph for losses sustained due to the Program schedule revision announced in July 2015. Bombardier’s delay claims will exceed the value of the claim filed by Triumph.”

The jet is Bombardier’s largest and longest-range business jet to date. The company announced in July 2015 it would push back by two years the entry-into-service date of the Global 7000, which made its first flight in November 2016 and is now in its flight test program at the Bombardier Flight Test Center in Wichita.

Masluch said in the e-mail that the first Global 7000 has completed 18 flights and the company remains focused on the aircraft meeting entry into service in 2018.

“And this dispute does not impact our ability to do so,” he said.

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Supplier Triumph suing Bombardier over Global 7000 jet."