Airbus has unveiled the 100th A220 regional jet to be delivered to an airline customer some three years after the aircraft entered service in 2016.
The 100th aircraft, A220-300 YL-AAU destined for Latvia-based airBaltic, was formally presented to staff, invited guests and media the program’s Mirabel, Canada facility on Thursday, November 28 2019 (Canada time).
Airbus said in a statement the A220 program had achieved 530 firm orders from about 20 customers at the end of October 2019.
The first A220, a -100, was delivered to Swiss in June 2016.
In November the same year, airBaltic became the first airline to operate the larger A220-300. The airline currently had 20 A220-300s in its fleet, with YL-AAL to be the 21st aircraft. It has 50 on firm order. [vc_gallery interval=”0″ images=”80367,80364,80368,80366,80365″ img_size=”750×420″ title=”Airbus celebrates 100th A220 (Photography from Airbus)”]
A220 was formerly known as the CSeries
The A220 is the newest member of the Airbus family of commercial aircraft. It was formerly known as the CSeries when the program was managed by Bombardier.
However, in October 2017 Airbus struck an agreement with Bombardier to become a partner and 50.01 per cent majority shareholder in the CSeries, with Bombardier and the Quebec government’s investment arm, Investissement Québec, owning approximately 34 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
The deal was finalised on July 1 2018 and later in the month Airbus officially rebranded the CSeries as the A220 at an event held at its Toulouse headquarters.
Powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans, the A220 family comprises two models – the A220-100 (100-135 seats) and A220-300 (130-160 seats), formerly Bombardier’s CS100 and CS300.
Currently, the A220-100 has a published range of 2,950nm when configured with 116 passengers, while Airbus lists the A220-300’s range on its website as 3,200nm with 141 passengers.
In May, Airbus announced it would offer an additional 450nm of range the A220 from the second half of 2020 thanks to an increase in the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 2.3 metric tonnes.
As a result, the A220-100 would have a range of 3,400nm, while the A220-300 would have a range of 3,350nm.
The A220-100’s basic MTOW would increase to 63.1t, from 60.8t currently, while the A220-300 would have a basic MTOW of 69.9t, up from 67.6t.
Airbus completes final assembly of the A220 at Mirabel in Canada and in Mobile, Alabama in the United States.
An airBaltic A220-300 was recently Australia and New Zealand as part of a seven-country, nine-city demonstration tour of the Asia Pacific region.
VIDEO: A look at the delivery ceremony of the 100th Airbus A220 regional jet from the manufacturer’s YouTube channel.
