New Flyer: $265M in 3rd quarter orders

New Flyer Industries Inc. announced that the total order activity during the third quarter of 2009 totaled 541 buses (622 equivalent production units or EUs) for a total of $265 million. Of these orders, 223 buses (245 EUs) are new orders and 318 buses (377 EUs) are exercised options.

These orders are from both current and new customers and are for a variety of vehicle configurations and propulsion systems, including 35-, 40- and 60-foot buses with clean diesel, diesel-electric hybrid, gasoline-electric hybrid and compressed natural gas (CNG) propulsion systems.

Approximately 35 percent of the EUs representing these orders (or 218 EUs) are clean propulsion (i.e., hybrid or natural gas) vehicles, which is a significant segment of New Flyer's annual production.

Some of the larger order activity during the quarter, included

• Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority (Charleston, N.C.)- Eleven 35-foot diesel buses with options for an additional 119 buses;

•  Regional Transportation Commission in (Reno, Nev.)- Exercised options to purchase eight 60-foot diesel-electric buses;

• Calgary Transit (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)- Purchased 22 additional 60-foot diesel buses;

• Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (Cincinnati)- Exercised options for 30 40-foot diesel buses, four 30-foot diesel-electric buses and three 40-foot diesel-electric buses; and

• The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (Boston)- Exercised options to purchase 25 60-foot diesel-electric buses

New Flyer's total order backlog at the end of the third quarter was 8,949 EUs, down from the 9,425 EUs as of July 5, 2009. This reduction was consistent with management expectations that total order activity in the second half of 2009 would be lower than the order activity during the same period in 2008.

The dollar value of the order backlog as of October 4, 2009 was approximately US $3.86 billion, down slightly from the backlog of US $4.0 billion reported as of July 5, 2009. Clean propulsion vehicles now represent approximately 72 percent of the total backlog.