Page 7 - AAA MARCH - MAY 2022 Online Magazine

airlines such as Delta, Air Canada and Korean Seven new operators were added in 2021: Air Austral, Air France,
Air, to operate the type to nearly 100 per cent Breeze Airways, Iraqi Airways, Ibom air, Air Manas and Air Senegal.
fleet utilization during the worst months of the
pandemic. “Existing and future operators of the Airbus is currently integrating the A220 Customer Services activi-
A220 such as airBaltic and JetBlue continue to ties into its worldwide network, in order to provide customers with
show confidence in the aircraft for their current improved and efficient support and services. Airbus will develop for
and long-term strategies,” an Airbus spokes- Airbus Canada, the flight, flight attendant and maintenance training
person, told AAA. courseware content. This material, which will become available
starting 2022 and will be used by the A220 Approved Training
According to the spokesperson, the A220 is Providers.
especially well suited to the Asia-Pacific region,
offering longer range capability, high levels of According to the Airbus spokesperson, customer comments on
comfort and 25 per cent reduction in fuel con- the A220’s in-service performance is generally very good, adding
sumption. The future growth of the economic that, customers were appreciative of the aircraft’s low operating
middle classes and the desire to travel will costs as well as the fuel burn advantage compared to similar-size
continue to drive passenger demand and the previous generation products. Airbus is offering the A220-100 as
region could account for around 20 per cent of the lowest risk solution for opening new routes, operating in urban
the forecast demand for 7,200 aircraft over the & challenging airports and also for operations with growing regional
next 20 years in the 100-150 seat size category. airlines. The A220-300 is also being offered as the ideal network
The A220’s range capability of up to 6,300 km feeder and as the lowest risk solution for start-up airlines. The
is a key asset for operators in the Asia-Pacific A220-100 has a similar cost per trip but significant advantages
region, as this allows non-stop services on per seat compared to regional aircraft such as turboprops. The
longer routes, such as from South East Asia A220-100 complements the A319neo which remains the aircraft
to North Asia (5-6 hours) and would enable of choice for operators looking for the highest capacity from the
opening of new routes to secondary destina- most challenging airports, including hot & high operations in Latin
tions, both for leisure and business traffic. America & China.

There is also strong potential in the South
Pacific region, where the type’s capacity and
range can help airline’s more closely match
demand for flights between the Pacific Islands
and for services to their major source markets
of Australia and New Zealand. The A220-100’s
excellent performance also allows it to meet
the requirements of the most challenging air-
fields such as London City for example.

Versatile Operator
Airbus acquired the aircraft programme from
Bombardier (where it was known as the C
Series) in February 2020, when the latter was
struggling to recoup nearly US$6 billion in
design and development costs for the clean
sheet aeroplane. The sale of the C Series pro-
gramme, also effectively ended Bombardier’s
aspirations to emerge as a commercial jetliner
manufacturer.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Korean Air operates
the A220-300 on both domestic and inter-
national routes with 10 aircraft. During the
pandemic the airline has been operating its fleet
of 10 A220s continuously. Australia’s Qantas
announced in May, that it would be ordering
20 A220s as part of its domestic fleet replace-
ment programme. Air Vanuatu has also ordered
three A220s, comprising two A220-100s and
one A220-300. As of end of December 2021,
193 A220s had been delivered to 15 operators.

ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE March_May 2022 | 7