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Bombardier Pledges $270 Million, 800 US Jobs After Trump Drops Ban Threat

The Montreal jet maker Trump threatened to ban from US skies a month ago is instead pouring new money into Kansas, Texas, Indiana and Connecticut — a peace offering in one of the trade war's stranger standoffs.

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BY OBSERVER STAFF

The Weekly Observer

OCT 24, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
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Bombardier Pledges $270 Million, 800 US Jobs After Trump Drops Ban Threat
A Bombardier-built Learjet 45. The company's US headquarters and largest workforce are in Wichita, Kansas. Photo by MilborneOne / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Bombardier said Friday it will invest about $270 million in its US operations and create roughly 800 jobs across four states, a show of good faith that came just days after President Trump dropped his threat to ban the Canadian jet maker's planes from American skies entirely.

The Montreal-based company, which builds the Learjet, Challenger and Global business-jet families, said the money will fund expansion at service centers in Dallas and Hartford, Connecticut, and support a sixth US site opening next month in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Bombardier is actively recruiting for 500 open US positions and expects its expansion projects to generate roughly 300 more — the combined figure cited in multiple reports as approximately 800 jobs. Texas alone is expected to account for half of the newly created roles, according to The Globe and Mail.

It's the second US investment pledge from Bombardier this month. Earlier in October, the company announced roughly $50 million for its Wichita, Kansas operations, including a new technician training center — the hub where more than 1,500 of its 3,500 US employees already work.

A Threat That Evaporated

The announcement caps a monthlong standoff that began when Trump, amid broader trade friction with Canada, threatened in September to block Bombardier aircraft from the US market unless the company moved manufacturing onshore, posting that "their products aren't good enough" unless built domestically. It wasn't the first such threat: in January, Trump said he'd push to decertify Canadian-made jets, including Bombardier's, in a dispute tied to certification of rival Gulfstream aircraft — a threat that faded once Transport Canada approved the Gulfstream models weeks later, according to Reuters.

The September threat put Kansas Republicans in an awkward spot, given Bombardier's Wichita footprint and Senator Roger Marshall's tight re-election race on the November 3 ballot. At a Wichita-area rally earlier this week, Trump reversed course, telling the crowd he had "just found out" the company had a major US base and that he had no intention of hurting its workers.

"Based on our constructive conversations with the US administration, we see a bright path forward" for the company's American workforce, Bombardier chief executive Éric Martel said, per Reuters.

Trump announced the investment himself Thursday night on Truth Social, crediting Senator Marshall and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for helping secure it, according to Investing.com.

Bombardier has reason to tread carefully in Washington: more than half of its aircraft production is sold into the US market, and its roughly 2,800 American suppliers span 47 states, making it an outsized target — and an outsized lobbying force — in the broader Canada-US trade fight. The company's shares (BBD-B-T) ticked up about 1.4% to 326.56 on the Toronto exchange Friday, a muted but positive reaction, per the CBC.

RBC Capital Markets analyst James McGarragle called the removal of regulatory uncertainty a net positive for sentiment around the stock, the Globe and Mail reported. Bombardier is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on November 5, which should show whether the political drama dented bookings for its business jets.

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