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Delta Air Lines’ first Airbus A220-100 starts flight tests

written by australianaviation.com.au | October 9, 2018

Delta Air Lines first Airbus A220-100 takes off on its maiden test flight. (Airbus)
Delta Air Lines first Airbus A220-100 takes off on its maiden test flight. (Airbus)

Delta Air Lines’ first A220-100 regional jet has completed its maiden test flight.

The first flight took place at Mirabel in Canada on October 6, with the aircraft in the air for two hours and 53 minutes while the flight crew checked the aircraft’s main systems, Airbus said in a statement.

Pre-delivery tests and assembly of the cabin interiors would continue ahead of delivery to the airline.

Delta Air Lines was due to begin commercial service with the A220 in early 2019.

The airline is the first in the United States to operate the aircraft and the fourth overall behind Swiss International Air Lines, airBaltic and Korean Air.

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Delta Air Lines ordered 75 A220-100s in 2016. Then, the program was owned by Bombardier and the aircraft referred to as the CS100. It also held options for a further 50 airframes, which could be either the A220-100 or larger A220-300.

It was the first firm order for the aircraft from a US carrier. Since then, US carrier JetBlue in July 2018 announced it had ordered 60 Airbus A220-300s, with deliveries starting in 2020.

Delta Air Lines first Airbus A220-100 at Mirabel. (Airbus)

In October 2017, Airbus struck an agreement with Bombardier to become a partner and 50.01 per cent majority shareholder in the CSeries program, with Bombardier and the Quebec governments 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 featuring invited guests, executives from both companies and invited media.

The A220 family comprises two models, the A220-100 (100-135 seats) and A220-300 (130-160 seats), formerly Bombardier’s CS100 and CS300.

Powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500G geared turbofan, the CSeries competes for the lower end of the narrowbody market alongside the Embraer E2 and Mitsubishi Regional Jet, and to a lesser degree designs from Sukhoi and COMAC.

The C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership’s (CSALP) head office, primary assembly line and related functions are based in Mirabel, Québec.

A second assembly line was also being established in the United States at Mobile, Alabama.

There have been 402 orders for the A220 family of aircraft, with 45 aircraft delivered to three customers – airBaltic, Korean Air and Swiss – as of September 30 2018, according to the Airbus website.


VIDEO: A look at the the first flight of Delta Air Lines’ first A220-100 from the Airbus YouTube channel.

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Comments (6)

  • David

    says:

    Would like to see Qantas look at the A220 to replace the aging 717’s.

    • Liam

      says:

      Qantas don’t own the 717 they contract the plane, pilots, cabin crew from cobham aviation

  • Stephen

    says:

    Would love to see these flying locally on thinner routes. Cant wait till my next U.S trip to try one out!

  • Kenneth

    says:

    It’s a great airplane, hope to get the opportunity to fly it one day again

  • Ben

    says:

    The 220 family would be a great fit for either team Q or team V. A good mix of the two models would give them something that would finally put all those F100’s and 717’s out to pasture. Q could replace the F100, B717 and potentially take some Q400 (slight upgauge with the -100) and B738 (slight downgauge with the -300) flying. Similarly V could replace the entire VARA fleet with it (F100 and A320) as well as the two remaining -700’s at mainline, replaces the removed (but much loved) E190 and could also provide a nice step between the ATR and 737 fleet (-800 now, -8MAX in the future).

    But sadly I’m not sure the utilisation figures stack. Back to beaten up old airframes for us!

  • Mac Carter

    says:

    the A 220 looks like a great aircraft, suitable replacement for the ageing Fokker and 717 fleets.
    However, for operations to and from remote, less than pristine runways / taxiways, operators
    should always consider the advantages of having engines mounted higher up on the aircraft
    well above the nasties sometimes found laying on the aforementioned runways / taxiways.

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