Airways Magazine

MIAMI — Air Canada’s first Airbus A220-300 performed its maiden flight from Montreal-Mirabel, in Canada.

The plane rolled out of the paint shop at Bombardier’s Mirabel facility in November.

Air Canada is the North-American launch customer for the A220-300 and will eventually take delivery of 45 planes.

The carrier also has 30 options to exercise, all of which will be used to replace the airline’s oldest Airbus A320 family aircraft and its entire Embraer E190 fleet.

Air Canada expects to take delivery of its first A220 before the end of the year and plans to put it into service by Spring 2020.

The carrier will also become the first Canadian airline to operate the Canadian-built aircraft, which has been noticeably growing in success since Airbus took over the program from Bombardier in 2018.

Air Canada plans to use the A220 to launch the newly established Montreal (YUL)-Seattle (SEA) route from May 4, 2020. The airline also expects to use the A220-300 on the Toronto to San Jose route, starting in Spring 2020.

Air Canada’s A220s will also be deployed on domestic routes from the operating bases in Montreal and Toronto to cities such as Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary and across the border to New York.

Onboard, Air Canada’s A220-300s will seat 137 passengers in a two-class configuration: 12 in Business and 125 in Economy. Each seat will also feature a Panasonic IFE screen, as well as an AC Power Adapter, USB-C, and USB-C sockets.

Just last week, Airbus delivered the 100th built A220 to Air Baltic, who was the global launch customer for the A220-300, taking delivery of their first A220-300 in December 2016.

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