Bombardier Q3 2025 Earnings Report

Bombardier EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$1.21
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Bombardier Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $3.21 billion
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Bombardier Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2025
• Date: 11/6/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

At Bombardier (TSE:BBD.A) (BBD-B.TO), we design, build, modify and maintain the world's best-performing aircraft for the world's most discerning people and businesses, governments and militaries. That means not simply exceeding standards, but understanding customers well enough to anticipate their unspoken needs. For them, we are committed to pioneering the future of aviation - innovating to make flying more reliable, efficient and sustainable. And we are passionate about delivering unrivaled craftsmanship and care, giving our customers greater confidence and the elevated experience they deserve and expect. Because people who shape the world will always need the most productive and responsible ways to move through it. Bombardier customers operate a fleet of approximately 5,200 aircraft, supported by a vast network of Bombardier team members worldwide and 10 service facilities across six countries.

Bombardier Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Bombardier reported a strong Q3 with deliveries up 13%, revenue up 11%, adjusted EBITDA up 16%, adjusted net income up 59%, and $152 million of free cash flow (a year‑over‑year improvement of $279 million), saying it is on track to meet full‑year guidance.
• Positive Sentiment: The company achieved key product and facility milestones, including Transport Canada type certification of the Global 8000 (entry into service before year‑end), opening a new Moorpark component plant, and announcing a Fort Wayne service center to become operational in H2 2026.
• Positive Sentiment: Bombardier Defense gained traction with the ninth Global delivery for the U.S. Air Force and a 10‑year service deal, and the firm expects a double‑digit number of defense deliveries in Q4 that also help relieve pressure on civil completion lines.
• Negative Sentiment: Supply‑chain remains the top monitored risk—transitory supplier costs trimmed near‑term margins and engines were the main bottleneck, though executives said parts and engines have mostly normalized for year‑end but some fragility remains.
• Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strength improved via a $250 million refinancing, an at‑par repayment of ~$100 million (to clear 2027 notes), and pro‑forma liquidity of $1.38 billion; management says it will remain disciplined on capital allocation while considering small, strategic tuck‑ins in services and defense.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Bombardier third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the discussion over to Monsieur Francis Richer de La Fleche, Vice President, FP&A, and Investor Relations for Bombardier. Please go ahead, sir.

[Francis Richer de La Fleche, VP of Financial Planning and Investor Relations at Bombardier]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Bombardier's earnings call for the third quarter 2025. I wish to remind you that during the course of this call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the financial performance of the corporation. There are risks that actual events or results may differ materially from these statements. For additional information on forward-looking statements and underlying assumptions, please refer to the MD&A. I'm making this cautionary statement on behalf of each speaker on this call. With me today is our President and Chief Executive Officer, Éric Martel, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Bart Demosky, to review our operations and financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2025. I would now like to turn over the discussion to Éric.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

[Foreign language] Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I have to start by saying Bombardier is in an excellent position. Our third quarter results have put us in a confident path to meet our 2025 guidance as we focus on executing our plan for a very strong end of year. Before Bart and I dive into the numbers, I want to take a moment to reflect on the few strategic accomplishments from this past quarter that also represent a perfect view of our long-term strategy. Yesterday marked an important moment for Bombardier. The Global 8000, the world's fastest business jet, received Transport Canada-type certification. This aircraft leads the industry with a maximum speed of Mach 0.95 and the lowest cabin altitude of any business jet in production.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

The program's journey will next continue with entry into service of our first aircraft before the end of the year. The Global 8000 crowns a lot of recent successes at Bombardier. On the performance front, for the third year in a row, Bombardier ranked amongst the TSX 30's top-performing stocks, an achievement very few companies in the index's history have ever reached. When it comes to our services, our customers have spoken loud and clear. Being ranked first in both the AIN and Pro Pilot product survey results is not just a recognition of our aircraft reliability, but it's also a recognition of our people. It reflects the strength of the team we've built, one that is united by a single mission: putting our customers at the very heart of everything we do, day in and day out. We also took a bold step forward, launching our U.S. expansion in August.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

In October, we began concrete actions with the announcement of our new service center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Let me be clear, this is just the beginning. This facility will significantly strengthen Bombardier's footprint in the Midwest, placing us closer to key cities and customers. Once fully operational in the second half of 2026, this center will offer world-class maintenance, repair, and overall capabilities for all of our aircraft. Most importantly, it will create approximately 100 high-skilled jobs, further reinforcing our commitment to grow, to our customers, and to the communities we operate in. This past quarter also marked a key milestone in the evolution of our U.S. manufacturing footprint. In August, we officially inaugurated our new component manufacturing facility in Moorpark, California, replacing our previous Los Angeles area operation.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

The new 46,000 sq ft site offers a modern and collaborative environment tailored to the expertise of our highly skilled team producing components for our Global 7500 and Global 8000 business jet. Our third quarter momentum has also carried into the fall. We deepened our presence in Asia through an agreement with Sojitz Corporation, one of Japan's leading business jet providers. They placed an order for both a Global 6500 and a Global 8000 flagship aircraft. This order will serve as a foundation for Japan's first large business jet shared ownership program. Bombardier Defense also continued to gain significant traction. We delivered the ninth Bombardier Global aircraft to the U.S. Air Force for the BACN program, and we signed a 10-year service agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation to support two Global 6500 aircraft equipped with RAPCON-X technology.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Bombardier Defense will contribute to our future growth meaningfully, and we are already seeing a strong foundation. In fact, we anticipate a growing number of aircraft deliveries in Q4. What's important to highlight here is that some aircraft destined for defense missions are green or modified aircraft delivered directly from our facilities in Toronto and Wichita. This creates extra capacity or flexibility in our Montreal completion lines as they focus primarily on deliveries to civil customers. This separation allows us to scale our defense operation efficiently without adding pressure to our core business jet production lines at critical times of the year. At the same time, demand remains strong across our entire portfolio, and our backlog remains at a five-year high level with a healthy balance between individual and fleet customer.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

As we prepare for the second half of the decade, we are in a position to begin reevaluating some longer-term production rates in areas where our facilities and the supply chain ecosystem could support increases to meet demand. That said, our top priority will remain to keep the operational discipline and customer focus that have defined our success until now. For Q4, we once again anticipate a more backloaded delivery profile similar to 2024. Our teams are working well to manage the tight schedule and meet all our customer commitments. Of the risks we monitor proactively, supply chain continues to be our top priority, and what we can assure you is that our teams are working with agility and discipline to mitigate disruptions. With that in mind, let me return to the Q3 results themselves.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

We had a double-digit growth for several key metrics, starting with 13% more deliveries, 11% more revenues, including 12% more revenues from services, 16% more adjusted EBITDA, and 59% more adjusted net income. Our free cash flow was even more significant, with a generation of $152 million, which is $279 million higher than last year. These are results the entire team is very proud of as we continue to demonstrate our strong growth potential and high levels of performance. We have also taken some action in the third quarter that focused on strengthening our balance sheet. Bart will cover that in more detail, as well as our commitments to continue retiring debt and meeting our on-track net leverage objectives.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

We are entering the final stretch of 2025 with excellent momentum across the board, and most importantly, I've steered meaningful cash generation ahead of what will be a very large fourth quarter for deliveries. Our growth across all key indicators reflects the entire team's relentless focus on executing our plan and supporting our customers. The Bombardier team is on track for a strong year-end. Bart, on that note, over to you to dive deeper into the numbers.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Okay. Thank you, Éric, and good morning, everyone. The entire Bombardier team is very pleased with the results we have shared with you today. Simply put, Q3 was a quarter of strong execution, continued year-on-year growth, and significant progress across our key strategic objectives. As we enter the final stretch of the year, we are in a great position to deliver on our full-year commitments. As Éric mentioned, Q3 was a standout quarter. Our backlog climbed to a five-year high of $16.6 billion, supported by a robust 1.3x unit book-to-bill ratio. We delivered more aircraft, more service revenues, more EBITDA, and more free cash flow than a year ago. We also continued to bring down the cost of our debt after having refinanced another $250 million at a favorable interest rate.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

We were once again included in the TSX 30 list for the third consecutive year, recognizing the top 30 performing stocks on the exchange over the three-year period ending June 30, 2025. At the same time, we've seen continued strengthening of our institutional shareholder base, underscoring confidence in our long-term potential. These achievements, combined with a very strong backdrop for business aviation, have put us right where we want to be to close out the year. Turning to the financials, we delivered strong year-over-year performance. Total revenue for the quarter reached $2.3 billion, an 11% increase year-over-year. We delivered 34 aircraft, up four units versus Q3 of last year. In terms of mix, we had 13 medium and 21 large aircraft deliveries, in line with the reversal towards a more global heavy mix of deliveries in the second half of this year, which I had mentioned during our last call.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

As a result, manufacturing and other revenue rose by $172 million compared to Q3 of 2024, driven by the incremental deliveries, favorable mix, and increased pricing. Our services business also continued to perform exceptionally well, generating $590 million in revenue this quarter, a 12% increase year-over-year, and representing roughly 25% of total quarterly revenue. Year to date, services are up 11%. We have set the stage for strong continued growth for years to come. Turning to profitability, adjusted EBITDA came in at $356 million, up 16% year-over-year, with a margin of 15.4%. A 60 basis point improvement over the same period last year. Margin growth was driven by improved aircraft mix and stronger pricing, but was partly offset by transitory supply chain-related costs. Adjusted for this item, our EBITDA margins would have well exceeded 16%. Our adjusted EBIT was $227 million, a 13% increase over Q3 of last year.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Adjusted net income rose sharply to $129 million, up 59% year-over-year, driven by strong execution and reflecting the growing earnings power of our businesses. Q3 adjusted EPS increased 64% to $1.21 versus the same period last year. Moving to cash, we generated $152 million of free cash flow in the quarter, representing a $279 million improvement compared to Q3 of last year. The year-over-year improvement is the result of higher earnings and improved working capital, which was driven by increased customer advances and lower inventory investments. In Q3, we invested $128 million in inventories, which was largely funded by a $101 million increase in customer advances. CapEx and net interest were $38 million and $78 million, respectively, for the quarter. In July, we also made our final residual value guarantee payment of $22 million.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

As I mentioned earlier, we continued to strengthen our balance sheet with an additional $250 million debt refinancing at a favorable interest rate. Earlier this week, we announced an at-par debt repayment of just under $100 million that will be effective on December 3 and will clear the remaining balance of our 2027 notes. Our debt retirement plan remains on track, and we expect to continue making debt repayments in the coming months. Liquidity for Q3 remains solid at a pro forma $1.38 billion, adjusted for the debt repayment we made in early Q3 and in line with our targeted range of $1 billion-$1.5 billion. Looking ahead to the balance of the year, we are on track to meet our full-year guidance.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

We expect to deliver a fourth quarter with very strong margins, resulting from a higher mix of large cabin aircraft, including Defense 6500s, Global 7500s, and our first Global 8000, which just yesterday received Transport Canada-type certification. These dynamics, along with expected stronger earnings and inventory release, are setting the stage in Q4. It's been a great year so far for Bombardier, and our team is fully focused on closing the year in a strong fashion before turning the page to next year's plan, which we will look forward to discussing during our next call in February. With that, I'll thank you very much, and I'll turn it over to Francis to begin the Q&A.

[Francis Richer de La Fleche, VP of Financial Planning and Investor Relations at Bombardier]

Thanks, Bart. I'd like to remind you that the Bombardier Investor Relations team is available following the call in the coming days to answer any questions you may have. For the question period, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. With that, we'll open up for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator]

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. First, we will hear from Tim James at TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

[Tim James, Head of FICC Technology at TD Cowen]

Thanks very much. Good morning, everyone. I'm just wondering first if you could talk about how you see the potential for capital deployment for M&A going forward. The balance sheet just gets better quarter after quarter. You're in a very strong position here. Just wondering what you're thinking about in terms of external capital deployment at this point, what types of opportunities you would consider or capabilities that you'd like to build.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Yeah, this is a thanks for the question. This is a great question. Actually, we're having a discussion as we speak internally about this. I think the principle that will guide us is, first of all, we will remain extremely disciplined as a company. We know that. We've done extremely well over the last five years. Our stock has grown, everything. We've paid quite a bit of debt, which we're going to continue to do between now and the end of the year. This gives us optionality walking into the next portion of the next half of the decade. Those options will be, we could still reimburse debt, which is always an option. We will definitely continue to invest in our program. I think it's important. When I say our program, it means our existing program.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

We'll look at all our options, but also there's very nice opportunity shaping up for the defense business also that we will consider investing. Clearly, you need to think about some product investment, mainly improvement on our existing product, which I have still capability to do so, defense. At the same time, we left the door open on potential M&A. Let me characterize this a little bit. Do not think of some major purchase there. We're more thinking of incremental that could add value to our existing business of services and defense, mainly. This is where we see value right now. We know that we have amazing potential to grow organically in both of those businesses between now and 2030. If opportunity occurred to do a bigger portion of the maintenance work, as an example, or

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

in defense, using our existing capability, we will definitely consider those. I guess all options are on the table, but I think what I should say is you should keep in mind that we'll be extremely disciplined with our capital deployment. We will continue to support mainly the business we are already in, actually only the business we are already in, I should say. We'll be opportunistic at the same time if ever opportunity occurs for a small incremental on services and defense.

[Tim James, Head of FICC Technology at TD Cowen]

Very helpful, Éric. Thank you. My follow-up question. This week's Canadian budget, the plan changes to the luxury tax in Canada. You press release talking about 600 potential new jobs for Canada. Could you talk about how you see that potential change in the luxury tax impacting your business?

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Yeah. First of all, we were extremely happy about the decision of the government. I think they realized themselves that there was no value added to have this tax for the taxpayer, actually, neither for the government. Clearly, and we said that publicly this week, this will create jobs at Bombardier and its supplier base. You have to think about this along this way. Usually, Canada was a very strong market for Bombardier. First of all, we have the majority of the market. You have to think about about 10 airplanes a year. In the last couple of years, since the luxury tax got implemented, we were more delivering about two to three planes a year. There was a major setback for us on the Canadian market that we dominate. Clearly, now what the opportunity is, is catching up.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

I have a lot of customers that I've been talking to that say, "I'm not going to place an order and buy a plane until this tax is there." Now that the tax is out, we have catch-up to do. You should expect a significant increase because, first of all, we have a bit of catch-up to do on the Canadian market. This has always been an amazing market when you compare the size of the country, the economy compared to the rest of the world, and the number of airplanes we're selling here, it's actually very, very strong. We're excited about this. I can tell you we're already having phone calls coming in so that we can discuss the next purchase of a Canadian customer.

[Tim James, Head of FICC Technology at TD Cowen]

Okay. That's really helpful. Thank you, Éric.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thank you, sir.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Myles Walton at Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

[Myles Walton, Managing Director at Wolfe Research]

Thanks. Good morning. Bart, could you help us with the fourth quarter implied margins toward 19% and that 400 basis point increase? What would be the driver of that? Obviously, higher than what you've seen in the past. Maybe just these transitory supplier costs, are they really behind you at this point, or could they still be there in the fourth quarter?

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Yeah. Thanks, Myles, and good morning. Q4, as I think probably everyone on the call knows, has traditionally been a very strong quarter for us. It's a quarter where we have customers who traditionally are looking to receive aircraft for accelerated depreciation purposes in the United States. It also tends to be a quarter where we have a very strong mix of large cabin aircraft relative to our midsize aircraft. Those large cabin aircraft are bringing higher pricing, generally greater margins. It's typical that the large cabin aircraft, particularly the 7500, commands a much higher margin. We are delivering a very large number of those aircraft along with the first 8000 in Q4. That will be part of it. We also anticipate or have plans to deliver about 40% of our total deliveries for the year in the fourth quarter.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

As you can imagine, on a quarterly basis, we're spreading fixed costs across much more aircraft. That's driving margin accretion as well. Services demand in the fourth quarter tends to be equally as high as we get customers preparing for the following year, and they place large parts orders. We know that part of our business is going to be very busy. I mentioned in my prepared comments that we're anticipating delivering a fairly significant number of defense aircraft, particularly 6500s in the quarter. We've talked about the margin profile for our defense business. That profile, which is very strong, spreads across both the green aircraft that we deliver and the modifications that we perform on those aircraft for delivery. All of those things combined are going to drive considerable margin improvement in the quarter.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

When it comes to supply chain headwinds, this has been something that I think the whole industry has been dealing with, obviously, for a number of years now. You've probably heard on prior calls with the other OEMs that we continue to collectively see supply chain challenges, but relief is starting to happen. Éric mentioned this on the last call that we've been starting to see this. Our own supply chain team has been working very, very hard with our suppliers to drive improvement. We're now at the point where for the first time in probably four years, we're back to what we would characterize as normal number of late parts to line. The supply chain has normalized, except for maybe the one kind of acute area that we've talked about, which continues to be engines.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

That all means that the headwind we've been facing from out of work or out of order work, incremental cost is going to start to become clawed back. We're expecting some of that to happen next year, throughout the year, and that will continue into 2027 as well.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Let me, Myles, to add just maybe one or two comments to what Bart says very clearly. On the defense side, okay, just to help you characterize what we have ahead of us. Is the fact that we've delivered so far this year about four defense planes. The number of planes we're thinking in the fourth quarter, you have to think of a double-digit number around. That's clearly a significant margin increase for us in the fourth quarter. The second thing. Bart's comment on the supply chain, we're right. I was myself, engines, as you know, has been the biggest challenge. Our overall shortages have gone down to a manageable level. Engine were the main concern.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

I was myself a couple of days ago on the shop floor, and I was walking the factory, and I have not seen engines waiting on the receiving dock for a long time, actually for years, and now it is starting to come up. I have seen some of the program. I think I would say we have two programs that are in a good catch-up right now. One remains fragile. The other thing I have to say that gives us strong confidence for the fourth quarter is the fact that probably for a couple of weeks now, we have all the engines we need to deliver year-end and pretty much all the parts, which gives us very strong confidence for our delivery in the fourth quarter.

[Myles Walton, Managing Director at Wolfe Research]

Great color. Éric, maybe just a quick one. You said reevaluate higher rates. Is that a reevaluation for higher rates in 2026 in a material way or more beyond 2026?

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Yeah. I think I would say today beyond 2026. We are in a great place, as you know, with our backlog. Having too much backlog also can become a problem because now you are selling airplanes in 2028, 2029, if not more. We have to reassess that. As I said, we will be extremely disciplined. I am not going to, and the team will not do it, if we do not think the supply chain will follow us. There is great detail of work right now on some program. I am sure you realize I will not mention which one. It is strategic and full for us, but we are thinking of diligently working at the capability of the supply chain. I think if the capability of the supply chain conclusion is that it is possible and we can do it, then we will clearly have strong consideration for some of the programs.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Benoit Poirier at Desjardins. Please go ahead.

[Benoit Poirier, VP and Industrial Products Analyst at Desjardins]

Yes. Thank you very much. Good morning, Éric. Good morning, Bart.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Bonjour, Benoit.

[Benoit Poirier, VP and Industrial Products Analyst at Desjardins]

Yeah. According to an article, obviously, you've talked about the potential to increase production rate on the Challenger, but also you're looking to maybe move a few parts in terms of manufacturing around the globe. I was wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit more about the potential for cost saving and maybe the potential for margin improvement as you bring the Challenger production rate higher and as you move a few parts around the globe.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

I think, Benoit, this is a great question. We always need to be mindful of continuously reducing our costs, but also de-risking our supply chain all the time. I guess some of the projects we're laying out right now will do both. They will help us to improve the margin of our product. They will help us to de-risk maybe some of the supply chain and will bring quite a bit of benefit. There could be the one also that will give us the opportunity to go faster on some of the program. I guess when we are assessing all of this, we have a very clear roadmap. In our plan, we are already banking on some margin improvement on our program. Some of it can come from pricing, but some of it also will come from reducing our costs.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

We have a very detailed plan on how we are going to reduce costs in our company between now and 2030. We are acting on this plan already. The strategy you just alluded to is definitely a big part of that.

[Benoit Poirier, VP and Industrial Products Analyst at Desjardins]

Thank you. Thank you very much for the call, Éric.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thank you, Benoit. Merci, Benoit.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Gavin Parsons at UBS. Please go ahead.

[Gavin Parsons, Director at UBS]

Good morning.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Good morning, Gavin.

[Gavin Parsons, Director at UBS]

Bookings year to date, sounds like good line of sight into deliveries. I was hoping you could kind of just walk through the cash flow guide.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Yeah. Thanks, Gavin. Free cash flow, as you know, for us. We know a lot about it throughout the year because of the big backlog that we have. We know we have great certainty around our delivery profile and the number of aircraft and type of aircraft that we'll deliver in the fourth quarter. That's the first big piece. We're going to enjoy higher profitability because of that, which will be driving a big free cash flow quarter. As I mentioned earlier, the mix is going to be very favorable towards the Globals relative to Challengers. That's the first part of it. We're very confident that we'll obviously hit our range. Within each quarter, though, obviously, we do have variability in order activity and in order mix, and that drives initial payments that can vary somewhat.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

I mentioned earlier in my comments, Éric did as well, that we have great line of sight. The market is very active. We have a high confidence, obviously, that we'll land within the range that we've provided for guidance for the year.

[Gavin Parsons, Director at UBS]

Is there anything that you're seeing on that? As pointed out, a pretty low book-to-bill would be needed to reach the end of the free cash guide.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Yeah. We're not seeing signs right now, Gavin, of a low book-to-bill for the quarter. In fact, the market in Q3 obviously was very robust, and that pattern or path has continued. Here in Q4, we've got a very strong, I'll call it, pipeline of order activity happening right now. And it spreads across all markets and all customer types with a lot of interest in defense. So we're very pleased with where we sit right now. Okay. Thanks, Gavin.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Cameron Doerksen at National Bank. Please go ahead.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Yeah. Thanks. Good morning.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Good morning, Cameron.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Just wanted to follow up on the free cash flow question because you sort of mentioned that you'd be evaluating production rates in 2026 with a view to perhaps increasing deliveries in 2027. You've got a $900 million free cash flow kind of target out there that you've talked about in the past. Just wondering if we do get a production rate increase planned for 2027. How does that affect the working capital? How does that affect, I guess, getting to that $900 million kind of free cash flow target?

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Maybe let me just clarify. Yes, we're looking at it now. It may take even further than 2027, by the way. It's a long process, especially with the state of the supply chain. Again, we'll be very prudent in making sure that we can deliver. Usually, it creates two things. If we increase the rate, it means that we're going to, yes, build some inventory to do that. At the same time, we will probably increase also the initial payment because we're going to have more airplanes to sell. Usually, we're trying to neutralize as much as possible. It may be not a perfect science that it's going to happen always at the same quarter. Overall, on the long run, clearly, this should happen. We're optimistic that demand on some of the platform is so strong right now. As you know

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

we have quite a good lead also on fleet operator. We've been very successful with fleet operator over the years. It's a big portion. The fleet operator also continues to grow significantly right now. When I put over and above all of this, some defense opportunity that we're working on, I think it is justified to clearly have a look at it carefully. Again, discipline will prevail, will ramp up. I think overall, we should see a neutralized cash flow because of the increase of IP initial payment coming in and progress payment.

[Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. That makes sense. Appreciate the time.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thank you, Cameron.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Jordan Lyonnais at Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at Bank of America]

Good morning. Thank you for taking the question.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Good morning.

[Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at Bank of America]

Éric, on the fleet strength that you guys are seeing from those customers, is there anything else that's changed from them that gives you more assurance that now is the time to raise rates? I know you guys announced a bond was the largest one, but is there anything else that you guys are seeing for a replacement cycle?

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Yeah. No, but I think it's a great question. First of all, some of these fleet operators from the start have airplanes to replace. You're absolutely right. There is a replacement cycle also that will take place in the next five years. At the same time, they do continue to grow. I was quoting yesterday with the board that we have seen the fleet operator, just a Bombardier plane, they're flying 62% more hours than they were in 2019. This is a significant growth over five, six years. They're clearly the leader in terms of growth in business aviation in terms of hours. A lot of people have adapted or buy shares of plane or buy hours or whatever the program is. We've seen amazing momentum. That momentum has not plateaued yet. A lot of people thought it was, but it doesn't.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

This year, I think they're up by another 5%-6% compared to last year. We definitely see newcomers, as you mentioned. Bond earlier. The fleet operator that we've been serving for decades definitely continues to see a stellar intake of order and programs. We're going to be there to serve our customer. The opportunity is quite amazing in the next five years still.

[Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at Bank of America]

Great. Thank you so much.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thank you, sir.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Thank you, Jordan.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Seth Seifman at JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Alex Ladd, Equity Research Associate at JPMorgan]

Yeah. Hey, guys. This is Alex on for Seth. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe on.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Good morning.

[Alex Ladd, Equity Research Associate at JPMorgan]

Good morning. Maybe to ask a question on services. I think you guys have talked about this medium-term growth target of mid-to-high single digits in the past. Clearly, over the past few years, significantly outperformed that. I mean, even this year, you're up 11% year to date. You talk about opening up this new service center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I'm just trying to think through, is there any kind of potential upside that you guys see to this target now that everything's performed so well?

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Yeah. This is an amazing story, our service center. In 2020, we were a billion-dollar business. Last year, we've achieved $2.2 billion-ish. So we more than doubled the business in about four years. And we're not done. That's the great news. As you know, in the first part of the decade, we've increased significantly our international presence. Right now, as we mentioned earlier, we are increasing our presence in the U.S. We just announced a new service facility in Indiana. We have planned to do probably another two announcements in the next year or so. Paul and his team are working diligently on this to make sure we are at the right place and we do the right investment. Again, we'll remain disciplined. The beauty of that business is, again, you know that we have more than 5,000 planes in service.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Most of the time, customers prefer to come to the OEM if they are present. That is why being in the Midwest was strategic for us and important for our customer base and for us. Now that we are there and giving the capability, we also know how predictable that business is because we know that the airplane we delivered 10 years ago is going to go into a major maintenance, as an example. This is calendar-driven most of the time. We pretty much know exactly when that airplane will be. We can work on it already and plan for that. That is why we are planning the capacity because we know for sure that today's capacity will not be enough to meet the demand. Otherwise, we will lose market share. That is not the plan.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Actually, we're baking on a bigger market, but also on gaining market share by being more present at the right place. There's other things we do also. I think the opportunity that you saw arising in the last five years will definitely continue to go at a very fast pace again. We're very active. We're opening centers. We're building capacity to meet demand, to grow our market share. At the same time, we're training people to do that. It's a fun challenge. Today, we have in the network hundreds of airplanes every day. Every morning, we take the picture of how many airplanes are we working on. It's pretty significant. It's actually double what it was five years ago. We're excited about this. Our assumption is that the trend will continue.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Yeah. And Alex, just to add to Éric's comments, just to help with the numbers a little bit. The mid to high single-digit growth that we've forecasted is primarily driven by baseline growth alone. That's coming from more flight hours, more aircraft in the service centers that we already have in place, aging of the fleet. The fact that we're replacing Learjets with the Globals and Challengers, etc., and with price increases on an annual basis. That's what drives that growth. Incremental to that, to give you kind of the sense of upside, is gaining more market share. We've talked about the potential to get to as high as 70% market share in coming years. This will take some effort, obviously. Éric just talked about we're opening more service center capacity in the United States.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

That will be part of the answer to how to get there because that'll attract more customers to us as the OEM. In addition, we're going to make some of those small targeted investments, M&A in particular. Tuck-ins to acquire capability and service licensing for major components. Like landing gear. Like engine repair, perhaps, and a variety of other things. Those are the upside elements. We're working on those plans to execute on them right now.

[Alex Ladd, Equity Research Associate at JPMorgan]

Awesome. Thanks, guys. I'll keep it at one today.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thank you so much.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Thanks, Alex.

[Operator]

Next question will be from Noah Poponak at Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

[Noah Poponak, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Hey, good morning, everyone.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Good morning.

[Noah Poponak, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

We just had a few follow-ups, just a few follow-ups on the cash flow statement. I guess it would be a little surprising if you were at the low end of 2025. Given the book-to-bill is always a part of the calculus and is trending well. To be at the high end, you have to do $1.1 billion of free cash in the fourth quarter, which would be up a lot year-over-year with deliveries up a little, but not a ton. Bart, could you just maybe shed a little bit more light on why you have not changed that range or what would get you a low end versus high end? As we go to 2026, do you feel like you are tracking to the $900 million or greater framework you have had or not for any reason?

[Noah Poponak, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

I just want to make sure, Éric, it sounded like you were pointing to neutral-ish change in working capital. Is that the right number? Because that's obviously been a pretty significant swing the last few years.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Yeah. Hi. Good morning, Noah. We have been consistent in our guidance all year on free cash flow, and we are not going to move off of it here in the fourth quarter. What we have highlighted clearly is that it is a very busy and strong market right now for new order activity. That is something that, obviously, depending on how many of those new orders actually get executed in the quarter, can swing the cash flow quite materially. You think about just a couple of sales that could be delivered in the same quarter, and you can be talking $100 million, $200 million of free cash flow very quickly. That is why we do not try to project beyond the next very short period of time, and we stick to our guidance. What we also have said, though, is we are expecting a very strong margin quarter, very profitable.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

The deliveries, as Éric highlighted, are all set to go. The engines are all here. We have every confidence that we'll be making our plans. When it comes to next year, we'll be happy to talk more about our guidance for 2026 when we meet in February.

[Noah Poponak, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Okay. Thank you.

[Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO at Bombardier]

Okay. Thank you, Noah. Thank you so much.

[Operator]

At this time, I would like to turn the call back over to Francis Richer de La Fleche.

[Francis Richer de La Fleche, VP of Financial Planning and Investor Relations at Bombardier]

Thank you, Silvie. Before I pass it to Éric for the conclusion, for those who were following the presentation online, I think we had a technical issue displaying the slides for the second quarter instead of the third quarter. I apologize for that miscue. The correct slides are available on our website, and the replay of the presentation will be posted with the correct ones. With that, I'll pass it to Éric for his closing remarks.

[Éric Martel, President and CEO at Bombardier]

Thanks to all of you for joining us today. Your continued interest in Bombardier and in the progress we're making means a great deal to us. As you've heard, we are delivering on our commitment, executing with discipline, agility, and building a strong, resilient company that is focused on performance, innovation, and also long-term value creation. Thank you all, and I look forward to speaking with you again in the new year.

[Operator]

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude the conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Participants

Executives

• Éric Martel, President and CEO
• Bart Demosky, EVP and CFO
• Francis Richer de La Fleche, VP of Financial Planning and Investor Relations

Analysts

• Jordan Lyonnais, Equity Research Associate at Bank of America
• Noah Poponak, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Alex Ladd, Equity Research Associate at JPMorgan
• Gavin Parsons, Director at UBS
• Myles Walton, Managing Director at Wolfe Research
• Tim James, Head of FICC Technology at TD Cowen
• Benoit Poirier, VP and Industrial Products Analyst at Desjardins
• Cameron Doerksen, Analyst at National Bank