Versatile twin

摘要

Three years after the Airbus A220, then still the Bombardier C Series, entered airline service with Swiss in mid-2016, a lot has happened in the story of this all-new airliner packed with new technology. Since its entry into service, the aircraft has been the subject of an international trade spat and seen majority programme ownership passed to Airbus, resulting in its redesignation from C Series to A220. In the last few weeks, Airbus has announced significant new performance improvements to the aircraft's payload and range, as it prepares to ramp up production at a new assembly facility later this year. At the start of June 2019, 85 orders had been received for the A220-100 (with 21 deliveries comprising 13 to Delta Air Lines and eight to Swiss) and 451 orders for the A220-300 (with 51 delivered, comprising 19 to Air Baltic, two to Air Tanzania, ten to Korean Air and 20 to Swiss).