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As American Gulfstream business jets await certification from the Canadian ministry of transportation, US President Donald Trump has taken it upon himself to crusade for the manufacturer’s cause. Trump’s threat to decertify the Bombardier Global Express bizjet, along with potentially other decertifications and even 50% tariffs on imported planes from Canada, has failed to provoke a Canadian reaction.
Canadian Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon responded by simply saying that he will not interfere with actions taken by US aviation authorities. The cool-headed reply from MacKinnon is backed up by the significant reliance that American air carriers have on the vast number of Canadian-produced aircraft in service across the United States.
Aviation Safety Under Fire
Officials and industry professionals across the US and Canada have almost unanimously responded to the desertification threat with the same condemnation. From aerospace worker unions to airlines in America and aviation experts across the continent, all agree that any mass grounding of Canadian-made planes would be economically crippling and set a dangerous precedent for the future.
John Gradek, a lecturer on aviation supply chain management at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, told CBC he was ‘flabbergasted’ by the threat, which he stated must be founded on misinformation, as following through would cripple the American aviation industry. Bombardier aircraft account for over one-third of the total number of regional aircraft in the United States and serve crucial roles for major airlines like Delta, American, and United.
Transport Canada works directly with the FAA in a cooperative effort across the borders to ensure all aircraft made in North America are safe, reliable, and compliant with the highest standards of aerospace quality. Minister MacKinnon was quoted by FL360aero in a post on X explaining that the Gulfstream certification is likely to be resolved in short order, though normal channels, with Trump’s threats making no difference:
“I do not interfere with this process, obviously. I have checked in with this process. To the extent that any ambiguities or misunderstandings may have existed, I think they’ve been dissipated.”
The Great Decertification
Trump’s threat came in the form of a post on Truth Social, in which he complained that Canada was effectively preventing the sale of Gulfstream products. Trump further explained that he not only plans to decertify the Global Express, but also all aircraft made in Canada until the pending Gulfstream models are certified by Transport Canada.
The latest trade war move against Bombardier by Donald Trump comes immediately after his previous threat of a 100% tariff if Canada makes a trade deal with China, as well as members of his cabinet meeting with Alberta separatists, according to CNN. Neither Trump himself, White House officials, nor the FAA explained what an actual path toward decertification would look like.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) responded to the threat by Donald Trump, explaining that the decision to ground a massive number of Canadian-made aircraft would threaten the job stability of its 600,000 workers in North America, as relayed by the CBC.
Why US Airlines Are Panicking Over Trump’s New Aircraft Threat
Canadian-built aircraft represent a considerable proportion of regional jet operations in the US.
A Historic Alliance And Partnership
The relationship between the Canadian and American aerospace industries is one of the most deeply integrated industrial partnerships in the world. Over half of all Canadian aircraft exports are sold to customers in the US, and an enormous volume of American aerospace components is exported back to Canada. Aside from making a significant number of aircraft, many American planes are powered by Canadian engines, like Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Grounding Canadian-made aircraft and dramatically increasing the cost of parts imports with tariffs would not only cripple US airlines but also impact specialized planes in the US Military. This deep and historic relationship extends to the Defense Production Sharing Agreement from the 1950s, which has integrated the defense industrial base of both nations to share research and development resources and directly supported US Department of Defense programs.
Imposing a trade tariff on Canadian-made aircraft or aerospace components, like engines, effectively only increases the cost to American consumers. Since a core element of the relationship between the two nations’ aerospace industries is the supply of parts from America to Canada, which are used to assemble planes that are then sold to American carriers or the US Armed Forces.
