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Perhaps more important, it burned through significantly less cash in the quarter, using US$490 million of free cash flow compared to US$808 million a year ago.

“If you look at the CSeries, where there was a ton of questions over the past two to three years, I think we have clearly turned the corner,” Bellemare said on a conference call with analysts. “I think that overall Bombardier is in a much better position today than we were a year ago.”

There is still some uncertainty surrounding existing orders for the CSeries, however. Russian aircraft lessor Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC), which placed an order for 32 CS300 aircraft in 2013, will reduce its order to just 20 CS300s and one Q400 turboprop. IFC said in April 2015 that it was “re-evaluating” the order after Export Development Canada stopped providing financing to Russian clients due to the conflict in Ukraine.

“They had their own requirements and we’ve worked something out that also benefits our Q400 program so I think from that point of view this is a good settlement going forward,” said chief financial officer John Di Bert.

Aviation consultant Ernest Arvai said the IFC order was considered questionable for some time.

“This restructuring appears to be a win-win solution for both IFC and Bombardier, solidifying an order many industry observers felt could have been completely cancelled given the economic situation,” Arvai, a partner at consultancy AirInsight, wrote in an analysis.