The Airbus A220 is a nifty plane that offers both a a great experience for passengers, as well as favorable economics for airlines. While Delta was the first North American airline to take delivery of the A220, another airline on the continent will soon take delivery of their first such plane (and they’ll be the first North American airline to take delivery of the A220-300, as so far Delta only has A220-100s). The A220-300 has a range of 3,200 nautical miles.
Air Canada has a total of 45 Airbus A220-300s on order, and they’ll take delivery of their first one before the end of the year. The airline has now revealed the configuration for these planes, as well as the first routes to be launched with these planes.
What to expect from Air Canada A220
Air Canada’s A220-300 will be in a two class configuration with a total of 137 seats:
- Business class will consist of 12 seats, in a 2-2 configuration
- Economy class will consist of 125 seats, in a 2-3 configuration
These planes will feature the widest economy seats in Air Canada’s fleet, as well as the largest overhead bins of a plane this size.
Every seat will feature a Panasonic eX1 in-flight entertainment system with more than 1,000 hours of entertainment. Furthermore, the plane will feature satellite based high speed Wi-Fi, and USB A, USB C, and AC power available to every passenger.
From an environmental standpoint, the plane will result in a 20% reduction in fuel consumption compared to previous generation aircraft.
Air Canada’s first A220 routes
Air Canada will take delivery of their first A220-300 later this year. The airline will first deploy these planes from Montreal and Toronto to existing Canadian and transborder markets, such as to Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and New York.
Beyond that, the plane will open up two new routes initially:
- Air Canada will operate daily, year-round flights, between Montreal and Seattle, as of May 4, 2020; this complements existing flights to Seattle from Vancouver and Toronto
- Air Canada will operate daily, year-round flights, between Toronto and San Jose, as of May 4, 2020; this complements existing flights to San Jose from Vancouver
It’s cool to see the airline using the A220 to launch some new routes that might not have previously been practical.
Bottom line
The A220 is a lovely plane, both from the perspective of passengers and airlines. It’s great that we’ll soon see more of these in the North American skies.
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