Bombardier in October 2004 added Mexico to its list for subassembly work on its C Series long-range jets. The Quebec-based aerospace giant is due to make a decision about where to locate its main plant for the aircraft sometime in early 2005. The company is looking for investments of $700 million each from both its suppliers and the government of the winning locale. Like Boeing's 787, Bombardier's plan involves sourcing from countries as far afield as Japan and Brazil, but final assembly is expected to land in either Canada, Northern Ireland or the U.S.
      Mexico is also doing something unique in civil aerospace, says Riley, whose company is trying to get in on that sector's Mexican ground floor. The country is nearing U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval of a bilateral aviation safety agreement for manufacture of aerospace products.
      "We are working on a TSO [technical standard order, or not flight-integral] project, which covers thousands of products that could be made for the aerospace industry," he says. FAA certification for these as well as flight-integral products will allow them to be made in Mexico and shipped to the end user without re-certification upon entry into the U.S. "There's a large savings there, and it would hopefully make our hemisphere more competitive with Europe," says Riley.
      Perhaps some evidence of that is already at hand. Among a group of investments totaling $30 million that were announced in October 2004 by Nuevo Leon Secretary of Economic Development Eloy Canto Segovia is a transfer of component production to the Mexican state by Airbus.