Atlanta based Delta Airlines has confirmed orders for an additional 15 Airbus A220s bringing their order total to 90. Delta’s initial order was for 75 A220-100s which was finalized in 2016 while the new order will be for the larger -300 models. Delta has also converted 35 of the original orders to the -300 model bringing the total to 50.
The A220, formerly known as the Bombardier C-series was rebranded in Q4 of 2018 after Airbus purchased a 50.01% stake in the program.
Delta plans to debut their first A220-100s on January 31st of this year with the proposed routes being from Boston Logan International (KBOS), Dallas/Fort Worth International (KDFW) and New York’s LaGuardia (KLGA) with additional aircraft being assigned to other domestic routes this summer which will mainly be from their larger domestic hubs.
Chief Operations Officer Gil West said the additional A220s “will continue to strategically enable Delta to refresh our fleet, drive further advances in the customer experience and serve as an excellent investment for our customers, employees and share-owners for Delta into the next decade.”
The Narrow-body passenger liner has a capacity of 133 passengers for the -100 variant and 160 for the -300 and has a maximum range of 2,950 nautical miles and 3,200 nautical miles respectively. Both variants are powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW1500G turbofan engines. The A220 also boasts a beautiful glass cockpit by Rockwell Collins. The avionics suite has 5 massive 15” displays with 2 for both the captain and first officer and one for the FMS system.
As of this writing Airbus has received 537 orders for the A220 (88 -100s and 449 -300s) from 21 carriers including Air Canada, Jet Blue, Korean air and Lufthansa and have delivered 57 units between airBaltic, Delta, Lufthansa, Korean Air and Air Tanzania.
