De Havilland Canada lands $1.79B to double waterbomber output
What's the deal? De Havilland Aircraft of CanadaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has secured up to US$1.83B (roughly $1.79 billion) in debt financing from Export Development CanadaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and the federal government to double production of its Canadair 515 waterbombers. The Calgary-based manufacturer announced the agreement on October 30, saying the money will expand manufacturing and fund new hires.
Why now? De Havilland's 38 existing orders are sold out through 2034, with customers including six European countries and the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba. Rising wildfire demand has stretched capacity: France added two aircraft to its order in June, and Alberta ordered five in a $400 million deal.
What's the endgame? The company expects to open additional production slots from 2030 as it works toward doubling output. The financing supports facilities in Calgary and Victoria, plus operations in Toronto, Kitchener, and Fort Erie, Ontario, and aims to strengthen Canadian aerospace supply chains.
De Havilland revived production of the amphibious turboprops in 2024 after European countries placed orders for a program BombardierDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → had halted in 2015. The Canadair 515 is the only amphibious firefighting aircraft currently in production built for that purpose from the outset.
What's the catch? The deal addresses manufacturing capacity, not sales. It does not establish a national firefighting fleet or commit the government to buying aircraft, and financing terms and the precise scale of the expansion have not been disclosed.
The agreement follows a summer campaign by the company calling for a federally backed national fleet. Vice-president of corporate affairs Neil Sweeney said earlier that a government order for 50 additional waterbombers would support a second production line at a planned complex east of Calgary.
The signal: At roughly $1.79 billion, the package sits in the 99th percentile of all debt rounds raised in Canada — a sign of how far governments will go to secure firefighting capacity as wildfire seasons lengthen. The bottleneck is production, not demand, and public money is now flowing to clear it.
Read more: mycariboonow.com
Image credit: realmcflier
