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 orders 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 took 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 has yet to disclose its half-year figures but it has publicly revealed orders and commitments for at least 219 aircraft since acquiring the programme – taking the overall total to 621.
Delta Air Lines has increased its orders for the type by 20 and converted 35 of the A220-100 to the larger -300 variant, while JetBlue added another 10 to its own total.
US lessor Air Lease is intending to acquire 50 A220s and Nordic Aviation Capital, which has long held an interest in the jet, has signed for 20.
While the -300 has been the more popular variant, Airbus has secured orders for two -100s from Air Vanuatu – which is also taking two -300s – plus another five from Delta Air Lines, while Nordic Aviation Capital has indicated that its 20-jet deal includes the smaller model.
The -100 accounted for 85 of the 536 firm orders Airbus held for the A220 at the end of May, by which point 72 A220s had been delivered – including 35 under Airbus's management.
Just one customer, the Swiss premium charter specialist PrivatAir, has cancelled its A220 agreement, an order for five -100s, after the carrier collapsed last year.
While the interest in the A220 has been heavily directed at the larger variant, programme chief Florent Massou told FlightGlobal in June that the airframer, which is already raising the maximum take-off weight, is not yet looking at a further increase in size.
"Our short-term focus is on the -100 and -300," he says, but he adds: "We know the platform has some capacity – and every aircraft wants to be stretched."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
