Air France’s new and first Airbus A220-300 is coming home. The airline is ready to take delivery of the latest member of its fleet, as it recently announced on social media. Let’s investigate further.
The A220 is coming
Air France’s Airbus A220 aircraft has been in the news a lot in the last few months. On July 26, we reported that the aircraft had rolled out of the paint shop in Mirabel, Canada. Then, a month later, this plane took off on its maiden flight.
Once again, one month later, the A220 is back in the headlines. The aircraft, registration F-HZUA, has flown from Montreal to Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport. According to RadarBox.com, the A220 landed at approximately 22:00 on Tuesday, September 28.
In a few hours, Air France will have a live event welcoming its newest addition, the airline announced on social media.
#AirFrance's fleet welcomes a new addition tomorrow.
Follow the event live on @AFNewsroom from 10am! 🛫#AirFranceA220 pic.twitter.com/J0ydzeKdYN— Air France Newsroom (@AFnewsroom) September 28, 2021
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Air France’s Airbus A220 order
In July 2019, Air France-KLM announced a massive order to acquire 60 A220-300 aircraft for the French carrier to replace its A318 and A319 units. Then, it was formally confirmed in December 2019. Additional to the firm order, Air France placed options to acquire 60 more aircraft.
In 2019, Benjamin Smith, Air France’s CEO, said in a statement,
“We are very pleased to work with Airbus to add the A220-300 to our fleet, an aircraft that demonstrates optimum environmental, operational, and economic efficiency. The selection of the Airbus A220-300 supports our goal of a more sustainable operation by significantly reducing CO2 and noise emissions. This is a very important next step in Air France’s transformation, and this evolution in Air France’s fleet underlines the Group’s determination to attain European airline leadership.”
Each of Air France’s Airbus A220 will have a capacity for 148 passengers in a 3-2 cabin configuration. Moreover, each seat will be equipped with type A and type C USB ports, and all passengers will enjoy WiFi access from their personal devices, as the carrier has previously announced.
According to ch-aviation, of the 60 aircraft Air France will receive, only F-HZUA has a registration. Additionally, eight other aircraft already have their construction number. Airbus will deliver two aircraft in October, one in November, two in December, and the three remaining between January and March 2022.
The A220 success
Airbus hit a home run when it bought the C Series program from Bombardier. According to its latest Order & Deliveries database, the European OEM has registered 90 orders for the A220-100 and 553 for the bigger version, the A220-300.
So far, Airbus has delivered 50 A220-100 and 123 A220-300. The biggest customer overall is Delta Air Lines. The US operator has orders for 45 A220-100s and 59 A220-300. However, the biggest customer for the A220-300 to date is JetBlue; it will receive 70 units of the type. Moreover, Airbus also produces the A220 as a private jet and recently revealed the colorful interior of this model.
In Europe, SWISS and airBaltic are the largest operators of the A220, with 30 each.
Are you excited about Air France’s new Airbus A220 fleet? Do you want to fly onboard this new and exciting aircraft? Let us know what you think in the comment section.
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