Airbus has potentially increased total A220 orders by more than 50% in the year since the airframer took over the former Bombardier CSeries programme. Bombardier took 402 commitments for the two CSeries models - the CS100 and CS300 - in the 10 years following its launch of the type in 2008. Airbus acquired the CSeries at the beginning of July last year, rebranding it as the A220, and booked its first firm orders some five months later when JetBlue Airways and Moxy - David Neeleman's US start-up - signed for a combined 120 jets. Chief commercial officer Christian Scherer has described the aircraft as a "salesman's delight" and Airbus appears to be delivering on its claim that it could exploit its marketing power to lift the order backlog for the twinjet. Airbus in its half-year figures lists firm orders for 551 aircraft - 90 A220-100S and 461 of the -300s - but has publicly revealed orders and commitments for at least 219 aircraft since acquiring the programme, taking the overall total to 621.
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