- Airbus has officially delivered their 12,000th aircraft ever produced to Delta. The aircraft was an Airbus A220 which was just recently acquired by Airbus from Bombardier. You may recognize this aircraft as the C series from Bombardier but when Airbus took over the project they renamed the project to the A220 series. This is Delta’s 12th A220 aircraft that has been delivered. The aircraft mainly serves the short to medium haul market. Delta has a firm order for 90 A220 jets. Other airlines that fly the jet are Air Baltic, Gulf Air, and Korean air.
Picture by: Anna Zvereva
Airbus is most known for their Airbus A32X series which includes the A318 through A321 aircraft including the Neo aircraft. Airbus has also been strong in the long haul market with aircraft like the A330,A340,A350, and of course the A380. Airbus recently came out with the A330 Neo which will also be going to Delta in the near future.
Some of Airbus’s key moments in the past years include the launch of the A350 aircraft which launched with Qatar airways and now the A350-1000 which has also just launched with Qatar Airways. Airbus also launched the A380 in October of 2007 to Singapore airlines (9V-SKA).
Picture by: Live from a lounge
The A380 project hasn’t always been a glorious one. When Airbus conducted the first stress testing they found that the wing fractured at a level of 146% when they thought it would make it to 150%. This caused Airbus to restructure the wing which added an extra 30kg. This further delayed the delivery of the aircraft and put a stain on the A380 project. Now the A380 has been in service for almost 12 years and it seems it’s coming to a slow death as A380 aircraft have been scrapped for parts by Singapore airlines and many airlines are saying no to the aircraft. Airbus has been forced to stop producing the aircraft as orders are few and far between. The production will stop in 2021.
Luckily for Airbus their A350 project is fairing well against it’s opponent the Boeing 787, and with the delivery of their 12,000th aircraft things are looking on the upside for Airbus in the near future. Congratulations to Airbus and Delta for being apart of this great accomplishment and cheers to better times in the coming years!
