Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Corporate analysts are carefully monitoring the possible implications of any new or modified Bombardier business and financial strategies under new CEO Paul Tellier, who took over from Robert Brown in mid-January. He assumed office last month just as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded long-term debt ratings of Bombardier Inc., Bombardier Capital (BC) and Bombardier Capital Funding.
The downgrading was driven by “significant challenges” that face the manufacturer in adjusting to a weaker business-aircraft market and in improving finance-subsidiary performance while simultaneously reducing debts. New York-based Moody’s has also placed under review short-term debt ratings of BC and Bombardier Coordination Center. 
The investor service initially announced a review three months ago, citing “the weak business-jet market and potential for pressures on [Bombardier’s] currently healthy regional-jet (RJ) business [because] of deteriorating performance of U.S. airlines, which [represent] a large part of its RJ backlog.” The continuing review is assessing the outlook for Bombardier’s industrial businesses, and its ability to improve anticipation of working-capital needs and overall debt levels, and to maintain an adequate liquidity profile. 
Also being considered is progress in reducing BC portfolios and the implications of any potential changes in business and financial strategy that Tellier might introduce. The company’s aerospace interests have grown rapidly since Bombardier first entered the aerospace industry in 1986 with the acquisition of Canadair in Montreal. It subsequently bought Toronto-based de Havilland Aircraft of Canada, U.S. manufacturer Learjet and Northern Ireland’s Short Brothers. 
Moody’s said reduced demand for business jets has resulted in “greater than historical levels” of cash consumption, but it believes that significant job cuts and production interruptions in Canada and the U.S. would both cut inventory levels and better match market requirements. Nevertheless, “Bombardier retains a sound business position in the aerospace market, but operating and cash-flow performance will remain under pressure at least through 2003.”
On the finance front, Moody’s said BC has achieved “only modest returns while significantly increasing [Bombardier’s] overall reliance on debt markets.” It favorably views Bombardier’s decision to gradually wind down the business-aircraft finance portfolio, but warns that success in reducing debt by C$5 billion ($3.25 billion) from July 2002 levels requires the sale of the portfolio, “which could present a significant challenge.” 
The Canadian transport conglomerate has started 2003 in the face of a slow market for new business jets and an uncertain demand for regional airliners, many of which are operated by carriers that are owned or controlled by major airlines still suffering a prolonged recession.

Analysts adopt bleaker mood on Bombardier debt

Corporate analysts are carefully monitoring the possible implications of any new or modified Bombardier business and financial strategies under new CEO Pau

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