Airbus has begun a demonstration tour of its A220 regional jet across Asia.
The tour commenced on November 5 2018, when an airBaltic A220-300 touched down at the Zhuhai Airshow in China.
The aircraft, formerly known as the CSeries, is scheduled to be in Chengdu on November 9, Koh Samui in Thailand on November 10, Kathmandu in Nepal on November 11 and Istanbul in Turkey on November 12.
It will then return to airBaltic’s base in Riga, Latvia on November 14.
你好，珠海！Hello #AirshowChina! @airbaltic's #A220-300 just made it to Zhuhai, ready to delight the crowds. Visit our stand and check out our broad range of Services portfolio including #Skywise and get an update on our latest wide-body aircraft, the #A330neo and #A350-1000. pic.twitter.com/8jIInj1acI
— Airbus (@Airbus) November 5, 2018
Already on Day 1 of #AirshowChina we’ve received overwhelming interest in our @Airbus A220-300 aircraft. Here’s a little insight to how it went. #airBaltic pic.twitter.com/CPlMQ4pU0s
— airBaltic (@airBaltic) November 6, 2018
It's Day 2 here at #AirshowChina with us presenting our @Airbus A220-300 aircraft! Take a closer look to all the action! pic.twitter.com/8jBFeMnRbE
— airBaltic (@airBaltic) November 7, 2018
In October 2017, Airbus struck an agreement with Bombardier to become a partner and 50.01 per cent majority shareholder in the CSeries program, with Bombardier and the Quebec governments investment arm, Investissement Québec, owning approximately 34 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
The deal was finalised on July 1 2018 and later in the month Airbus officially rebranded the CSeries as the A220 at an event held at its Toulouse headquarters featuring invited guests, executives from both companies and invited media.
The A220 family comprises two models, the A220-100 (100-135 seats) and A220-300 (130-160 seats), formerly Bombardier’s CS100 and CS300.
The A220-100 has a range of 2,950nm when configured with 116 passengers, while Airbus lists the A220-300’s range on its website as 3,200nm with 141 passengers.
Powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500G geared turbofan, the CSeries competes for the lower end of the narrowbody market alongside the Embraer E2 and Mitsubishi Regional Jet, and to a lesser degree designs from Sukhoi and COMAC.
VIDEO: A closer look at the Airbus A220 from the Airbus YouTube channel.
The C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership’s (CSALP) head office, primary assembly line and related functions are based in Mirabel, Québec.
A second assembly line was also being established in the United States at Mobile, Alabama.
There have been 402 orders for the A220 family of aircraft at September 30 2018, according to the Airbus website. So far eight A220-100s and 37 A220-300s have been delivered.
Its biggest customers are Delta Air Lines (75 aircraft), airBaltic (50 aircraft) and Air Canada (45 aircraft). The only airline customer in Asia is Korean Air, which has eight A220-300s in its fleet and two more on order.
