Ulster Unionist peer, Lord Empey, who is a Vice Chairman of Westminster`s All Party Parliamentary Group on Aerospace, has welcomed the commercial flight debut of Bombardier`s C-Series as it flies from Zurich to Paris today with launch airline Swissair, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

Lord Empey said:

“With currently 370 firm orders on the books and hundreds of options, I hope that the C-Series goes from strength to strength and that Bombardier`s plans are firmly back on track.

“I visited the Farnborough Airshow this week in my role as a Vice Chairman of Westminster`s All Party Parliamentary Group on Aerospace. I met with Michael Ryan, General Manager of Bombardier's Belfast plant, and was given a tour of the aircraft, which, I must say, was very impressive.

“The windows are bigger than its Boeing 737 and Airbus A 319 competitors; it has super efficient engines; much bigger locker space and more room per passenger per seat. In the cockpit is a state of the art HUD system (Head-Up Display) which is not available on its rivals’ aircraft. The wings for the C-Series are made in the new factory in East Belfast, and are of a revolutionary new composite material and not the traditional aluminium construction.

“The Ulster Unionist Party became involved in helping the company over 14 years ago in lobbying the then Chancellor Gordon Brown for launch aid assistance, which, after many years, eventually came through. Having been involved with the company over the years on this and other matters, I was immensely impressed and indeed proud at what the Belfast factory could achieve and what it can continue to achieve in the future if given the right backing.”