"We are the ones who know the (CSeries) program better," Jianwei Zhang said on Monday.

The president of Bombardier China, which employs 4,000 people, mostly in rail equipment, was countering skeptics who doubt Bombardier Inc.'s CSeries future jetliner program can rely on China's Shenyang Aircraft Corp. to deliver fuselage sections.

They're wrong, Jianwei said after a symposium at the Hautes Études Commerciales business school of which he is a graduate.

"It's going very well - better and better, in fact," he said, referring to Shenyang.

"There were some problems at the start, but I do't think (it will delay the program)."

Richard Aboulafia of consultancy Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., told The Gazette recently that Shenyang's ability to deliver the centre fuselage section for the CSeries on time and with the required quality remains his main preoccupation.

He and several analysts are increasingly dubious that Bombardier can stick to its end-of-2013 target for delivery of the future 100- to 150-seat airliner.

But Bombardier presi­dent Pierre Beaudoin and Guy Hachey, president of Bombardier Aerospace, have both reiterated recently that the program will meet its schedule.

Louis Chênevert, chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corp., whose Pratt & Whitney division is developing the geared turbofan engine for the CSeries, said in a brief interview that the engine program is also "on time to support" Bombardier's CSeries development.

Final assembly of the GTF engine will be done at Pratt & Whitney Canada's new Mirabel plant.

But Chênevert -- also an HEC graduate -- said that no decision has been made yet on whether Mirabel also will assemble the larger GTF engines that will power bigger jets by Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS.

Jianwei dismissed the notion that China is only interested in a transfer of Bombardier's technologies so it can develop its own stand-alone aviation industry later.

The CSeries is not in competition with the two civilian aircraft being developed by Beijing - its ARJ21 seats about 90 passengers while its Comac C919 will start at 150 seats. This is why, he said, a recent agreement between Bombardier and Comac to identify and develop projects jointly "is a win-win."

The ARJ21 has suffered delays and technical problems for the last few years.

Jianwei said despite Beijing's review of its high-speed rail policy after a major accident this year has not hurt Bombardier.

Bombardier China has about C$4 billion in backlog orders.