Air CanadaTimothy Stake
Jazz Air will buy at least 15 turboprop airliners worth $454-million from Bombardier Inc. , the two Canadian companies announced Friday.
Jazz currently sells most of its seating to Air Canada, which uses the Halifax-based regional airline's smaller planes to serve lower-traffic routes.
The airline, owned by Jazz Air Income Fund , has options on 15 additional Q400s - making Friday's deal worth up to $937-million (U.S.).
The president and CEO of Jazz Air, Joseph Randell, says the new Q400 planes will be configured with 74 seats.
The Q400 NexGen plane model was launched in 2008 and is assembled in Toronto, at Bombardier's Downsview manufacturing plant.
Jazz's fleet currently consists of 64 CRJ regional jets and 64 older turboprop plane models, all made by Bombardier.