By exercising some of its options with Airbus, Air Canada has ordered an additional 15 A220-300
aircraft. These additional jets will bring the airline's total number of A220s ordered to 60.
The carrier currently operates 30 of the narrowbody jet along routes across North America
and has thoroughly incorporated the aircraft into its short and medium-haul operations.
Let’s look at this latest development in today’s video.
As it stands, the airline is on track to receive its 45th A220 by the end of 2025.
It is anticipated that it will be a few more years before all 60 are delivered to the Canadian flag
carrier. Since it began service with the operator in January 2020, the airliner has proven itself
to be a safe, reliable, and efficient aircraft that excels at fulfilling its mission duties.
Airbus has taken great pride in the success of the A220.
The Chief Commercial Officer and Head of International affairs at Airbus,
Christian Scherer, shared the company's enthusiasm for Air Canada's latest order. Airbus sees the
order as another testament to the airliner's excellent performance and growing reputation.
Scherer stated,
"This demonstrates the value the aircraft is bringing and we are proud to provide
our customer with a high level of flexibility, great economics and a real passenger-appeal…With
already over 30 aircraft in service with the airline, the A220 has established
itself as an efficient route-opener, as well as mainline workhorse, strengthening the carriers'
continental network while delivering on Air Canada's ambitious decarbonization targets.”
Just by looking at the long list of A220 services that have been or are currently being operated by
Air Canada, we can see that the airline is deploying the type in all sorts of roles.
First, the A220 operates on a number of high-volume
routes to provide additional frequencies.
Short hops have included services from Montreal and Toronto to New York, as well as between
Montreal and Toronto. There's even the extremely short, 151km journey between Montreal and
Ottawa - two airports that would take roughly two hours to drive between using a private vehicle.
The carrier also supplements longer high-volume services with the type,
including Vancouver to Montreal, Vancouver-San Francisco, and Vancouver-Los Angeles.
The nearly five-hour Vancouver-Montreal route, in particular, also sees service with the Boeing 777,
Airbus A330, and Boeing 737 MAX 8, with around five services per day.
It’s quite fortunate that the aircraft fits the airline well in terms of efficiency and
passenger comfort. These factors make it easy for Air Canada to purchase
the jet. The cherry on top is that the jet is a Canadian-designed and
Canadian-built machine - originally developed by Montreal-based manufacturer, Bombardier.
Unfortunately, due to massive program costs in bringing the jet to market amid a trade dispute
launched by Boeing, the Canadian aerospace company turned to Airbus to rescue the program. Thus,
the Bombardier C-Series program eventually became the Airbus A220 program.
Still, while primarily being a European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus Canada produces the A220
in Mirabel, Quebec, while also having an additional facility in Mobile, Alabama.
What do you think of this aircraft order? Let us know in the comments below.