Canada’s biggest aircraft manufacturer has a larger footprint in the US than many people think.
Bombardier — known for making multimillion-dollar private jets for A-list celebrities like Matt Damon and Beyoncé — has been among the targets of President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with Canada. The aerospace sector was not among the president’s latest sweeping tariffs, but he still floated the idea of banning Bombardier from selling in the US.
In a Monday Truth Social post, Trump said the planemaker is “treating America like a ‘piggybank'” and must build here if it wants access to the US market: “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” he wrote. “Their products aren’t good enough!”
Bombardier quickly released a statement, and without naming Trump, pointed to the company’s deep presence in the US: It described thousands of direct jobs across over 20 states, $2.5 billion spent across roughly 2,800 American suppliers in 47 states each year, and a network of offices, maintenance facilities, manufacturing plants, and service centers that serve its high-net-worth customers.
Its US headquarters are in Wichita, Kansas, where the Learjet was manufactured until the program’s end in 2022, but now focuses on defense, flight testing, and servicing. It also builds wings in Texas and flight control components in California, and it has a large parts distribution center in Chicago that has operated since 2005.
It also has mobile truck response team centers — technicians dispatched to assist grounded aircraft in need of repair, technical assistance, or parts — based in 13 states.
Overall, Bombardier said it employs 3,500 direct employees in the US. And despite threats from Trump, it told Reuters on Wednesday that it wants to hire another 500, some of whom will work at a new service center set to open in Indiana in November.
Some Republicans have publicly defended Bombardier. In a Monday statement, US Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said Wichita employs over 1,000 Americans and that he’d contacted the president to ensure he is “aware of the significant contributions of Bombardier to Kansas.”
The state’s other Republican senator, Sen. Roger Marshall, said in a Tuesday X post that he’d “fight” for Bombardier’s Kansas workforce and that he had already voiced his concerns to the White House.
Bombardier and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s not the first time Trump has threatened Bombardier. In January 2026, the president threatened to de-certify Canadian-built planes unless Canada’s transport authority certified certain American-made Gulfstream jets. Canada did so a month later, and Trump’s threat fizzled out.
Here are the states where Bombardier has direct workers. Much of Bombardier’s indirect support comes from suppliers and authorized pilot training and service contractors.
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