Canada’s aviation regulator certified Gulfstream‘s G700 and G800 business jets on Monday, bringing a months-long dispute with Washington to a close and heading off a threatened escalation in trade hostilities between the two countries.
Transport Canada awarded type certifications to the two flagship models from Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream Aerospace, a subsidiary of General Dynamics — completing approvals for all four contested aircraft types. The regulator had already cleared the older G500 and G600 models on February 15.
The decisions came weeks after President Donald Trump publicly accused Canada of having “wrongfully, illegally and steadfastly refused” to certify the Gulfstream aircraft. Trump threatened to decertify Canadian-made planes and impose a 50% tariff on the sector — a direct threat to Montreal-based Bombardier Inc., Canada’s largest aircraft manufacturer.
Canada’s Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon rejected the suggestion that political pressure drove the outcome. “There were applications in,” MacKinnon told reporters in Ottawa, referring to certification requests Gulfstream had already submitted.
The approvals carry a significant caveat. The FAA issued the G700 and G800 only conditional certificates in 2024, flagging unresolved concerns about fuel system performance in icing conditions. Gulfstream faces a year-end deadline to resolve them. Transport Canada moved forward anyway.
The move also completes a regulatory convergence that Europe reached years earlier — the EU Aviation Safety Agency had certified all four Gulfstream models by April 2025. For Gulfstream, Canada’s approval opens a commercially significant market where large-cabin business jet operations are widespread.
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