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When will new Canadairs be available? «We are working with our partners in the European Union, including Italy, to conclude purchasing agreements. We expect production to begin once contracts are signed, with the first delivery expected before the 2027 fire season.” This is the answer given by the Canadian company De Havilland Canada, the only one in the world capable of building them: it owns the Canadair program, and is working to put its most recent version, the DHC-515, into production.
The order of 22 new vehicles from De Havilland by Italy, France, Greece, Croatia, Spain and Portugal last year therefore seems to be still in the definition phase. The Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies Nello Musumeci had already attacked the monopoly situation in which the production of Canadair actually finds itself: «It is not conceivable that the European Union cannot strengthen its fire-fighting fleet only because the Canadairs are produced by a single company under a monopoly regime,” he said in January. And now, after the fires in Sicily, he has increased the dose: «There are fewer and fewer Canadairs around, Italy has applied to buy some but will have to wait another 4-5 years. In the face of this paradoxical situation, an alternative solution is being worked on together with other EU member states, because the problem is not only Italian”.
DHC-515 Firefighter
De Havilland Canada confirms that it is in contact with Italian officials in the context of discussions with European Union member states regarding the new DHC-515 Firefighter aircraft. And it also confirms that it is already, albeit indirectly, a supplier: “The Italian government owns a fleet of Canadairs and we supply the company that takes care of aircraft maintenance: Avincis”, the company said.
A plane worth 35 million
First produced in the 1960s, the original firefighting aircraft was the CL-215 built by Canadair of Canada and designed to fly low and collect water in seconds. Of the 225 vehicles built since then, nearly 170 are still in use, putting out fires in North America and Europe. Canadair ceased to exist in 1986, incorporated by Bombardier, also Canadian. Production of the firefighting aircraft ceased in 2015 and Bombardier sold the program the following year to Viking Air, which was then acquired by De Havilland.
The program for the new Canadairs was therefore officially relaunched last year with the updated DHC-515 model, a vehicle that costs 35 million dollars in the price list. Final assembly will be in Calgary, Alberta, where maintenance lines for the CL-215 and subsequent CL-415s are already in place.