Industry Airbus celebrates delivery of 100th A220 aircraft

At the programme´s headquarters in Mirabel, Canada, Airbus celebrated the delivery of A220 number 100. The aircraft, an A220-300 is designed for Latvia-based carrier Air Baltic, which already operates around 20 of the aircraft.

Three years ago, Air Baltic also became launch operator of the larger variant. Since November 2016, the carrier has re-ordered A220 aircraft twice. As it stands, Air Baltic is the biggest European A220 customer with a firm order of 50 aircraft.

The delivery is a huge milestone for the programme, which had been overtaken by Airbus last year. Previously, Bombardier held 100% on the programme. After the Canadian manufacturer experienced financial troubles and problems to sell the aircraft, Airbus bought the majority stake. Simultaneously with this transaction, Airbus changed the name from “Bombardier CSeries” to “Airbus A220”.

Since then, the programme saw several airlines ordering one of the two variants. Largest customers are JetBlue and Moxy, which both ordered 60 aircraft. JetBlue added another 10 aircraft to the logbook this June.

As it stands, Airbus has received orders for 95 A220-100s, the smaller variant, and orders for 421 A220-300s, the larger version. In addition, the manufacturer was able to secure 227 options and 52 purchase rights.

Regarding the aircraft and operator Air Baltic, Airbus wrote in a statement: “In an extremely competitive market, the aircraft’s unequalled fuel efficiency and excellent performance has been instrumental to Air Baltic which has an all-A220 fleet as the backbone of its new business plan. Air Baltic is operating its A220 fleet to various European and Russian destinations as well as to the Middle East. It currently operates the longest flight on an A220 – a 6.5-hour flight from Riga to Abu Dhabi.”

The A220 was initially designed for the 100-150 seat market. It brings together state-of-the-art aerodynamical advantages and new Pratt & Whitney PW15ßßG turbofan engines. The new high bypass engines deliver an at least 20 percent lower fuel burn per seat.

As of autumn this year, six operators are using A220 aircraft on four continents. These airlines are Air Baltic, Swiss International Air Lines, Korean Air, Air Tanzania, Delta Air Liens and Egypt Air. Over one third of the 100 aircraft are A220-100s.