Despite having no direct legal mandate to do so, United States President Donald Trump said he was "decertifying" all aircraft made in Canada, particularly the Bombardier Business Aircraft Global Express family, due to alleged delays in the Canadian certification of the US-made GVII-G500, GVII-G600, G700, and G800 aircraft.
"Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made," Trump wrote on his own social media platform, Truth Social. "We are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a great American company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago."
Trump further threatened that if the certification snag was not "immediately corrected", the United States would impose a 50% tariff on all Canadian aircraft, even though, if they were to be decertified, they would presumably not be able to fly in the US.
An unnamed White House official later told Bloomberg that decertification would apply only to new aircraft, not those that are already in service in the United States.
Bombardier said in a statement that it had taken note of the statement and was in contact with the Canadian authorities.
Type certification in the US is controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the president has no legal way of directly causing a type to be decertified. The suspension of an aircraft type certificate, while possible, is an extremely rare event and has generally happened only after serious crashes. Most high-profile safety-related groundings are enforced via airworthiness directives, but not the suspension of type certificates.
The FAA has not issued any regulatory decisions which would implement Trump's threats just yet.
ch-aviation data shows there are currently 2,955 Bombardier aircraft registered in the United States, including 2,852 business jets and 103 commercial aircraft. There are an additional 215 De Havilland Aircraft of Canada aircraft registered in the United States, as well as 196 Airbus Canada-made A220s.
Various US-based customers have disclosed orders for another 241 Canadian-certified aircraft, including Bombardier Business Jets units and A220s. However, most business jet orders are not disclosed ahead of delivery, and it is very likely that more US customers have commitments for Bombardier aircraft.
