At the Paris Air Show today, Qantas has finalized an incremental order for nine extra A220-300s, complementing the 20 that were ordered in late 2021.
In this post:
Qantas’ Airbus A220 order
In late 2021, Qantas announced its narrow body fleet renewal plans. At the time, the airline placed the following order:
- Qantas made a firm commitment for 20 Airbus A321XLRs, which is the longest range and largest version of the Airbus A320 family
- Qantas made a firm commitment for 20 Airbus A220-300s, which is the largest version of the Airbus A220 family
- This order was in addition to Jetstar’s existing agreement with Airbus for over 100 aircraft in the A320neo family
- On top of that, Qantas ordered 12 Airbus A350-1000s, intended to operate the world’s longest flights
This order included additional purchase rights for more aircraft, and Qantas has now exercised some of those. Today, Airbus and Qantas finalized a deal for nine additional A220s, meaning that Qantas now has a total of 29 A220-300s on order.
For context, Qantas’ narrow body fleet currently consists of 75 Boeing 737-800s, and on top of that, QantasLink operates 20 Boeing 717s. Eventually the airline has 95 narrow body aircraft to replace, and the current order for 49 A220-300s and A321XLRs won’t fully do the job.
I think it’s safe to say we can expect more of those options to be exercised in the future.
What to expect from Qantas’ Airbus A220-300s
What’s pretty exciting is that Qantas is expected to take delivery of its first A220 before the end of 2023, so we’re just months from the first delivery. While Qantas hasn’t revealed too many details yet, we can expect that the A220 will feature 137 seats, including 10 business class seats and 127 economy class seats.
Business class will be in a 2-2 configuration (similar to domestic first class within the United States), while economy will be in a 2-3 configuration. The A220 is an absolute joy to fly, given that it has only one middle seat per row, and has a modern cabin with huge windows and large lavatories.
It’s exciting to see Qantas updating its fleet in this way.
Bottom line
Qantas has finalized an incremental order for nine additional Airbus A220-300s, meaning the airline now has 29 A220-300s on order. The first of these jets is expected to be delivered in late 2023, and the plane should be a joy to fly.
It’s nice to see that Qantas has plans to refresh its narrow body fleet, though the outstanding A220-300 and A321XLR order only replaces about half of the existing narrow body capacity. Expect more incremental orders in the future (though Qantas is very conservative, so it might take some time).
What do you make of Qantas’ A220-300 order?
Looking forward to seeing it in Nth Queensland sky’s and named SUGAR GLIDER.
Make flying to America the slots harder now. It is wrong they keep favoring Europeans. 737 max has shorter waiting lists, very bad move by Qantas.
Qantas Group also owns Jetstar, which operates a large number of A320s & is replacing them with A321LR & XLR aircraft, so having Airbus commonality across the group fleet makes sense.
I think you're suggesting that Qantas' right to fly to the USA should be restricted because they didn't buy Boeings? That's just silly. There was a competitive tender process & Airbus won. It's called "competition".
Interesting comment. Does that mean that every airline that does not favour Airbus should be banned/restricted from Europe? Maybe EU should request that US Airlines flying to EU should use only Airbus for EU flights.... that would fit with your logic....
So you mean to say that
1). ANA should be denied slots in Europe for not having Airbus wide bodies.
2). JetBlue should be punished by the US for not having a single Boeing aircraft in their fleet.
Do you ever comment about anything else? You keep beating this drum and it’s absurd. If the US punishes airlines for not buying Boeings it would be inviting retaliation that would harm US airlines and most likely wouldn’t benefit Boeing at all. Maybe you the EU should punish airlines who buy Boeing aircraft too? I suspect not.
Umm... you're aware that all major US carriers (AA, DL, UA, JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, Hawaiian - except Alaska & Southwest) use Airbus equipment? So should their slots also be restricted?
That would be known as 'protectionism' and is the antithesis of free-trade capitalism.
As for Qantas 'keeping favouring' Airbus: Qantas and its predecessor carriers have, since 1959, operated the 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 767 and 787; plus DC9. That's a still-unbroken 64 years of US-made jet types.
Prior, the company operated DC3, DC4, DC6, Electra, Constellation/ Super Constellation... So US-made types continuously since at least the end of WW2.
Boeing shot itself in the foot when it cancelled the 757 without a clear replacement: the...
As for Qantas 'keeping favouring' Airbus: Qantas and its predecessor carriers have, since 1959, operated the 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 767 and 787; plus DC9. That's a still-unbroken 64 years of US-made jet types.
Prior, the company operated DC3, DC4, DC6, Electra, Constellation/ Super Constellation... So US-made types continuously since at least the end of WW2.
Boeing shot itself in the foot when it cancelled the 757 without a clear replacement: the A321XLR is now stepping into that space (medium-range, low-density routes), this also creating an opening for the A320 family to replace the aging 737-838s generally (and get a good deal when Jetstar needs are included). The 777X is heavier than the 350-1000 for Sunrise, so harder to make money. And it's 5 years late (and counting). For comparison, 747 production was started in 1965, and it entered service in 1970; the 777X was started in 2011 (as a derivative of a type already in service since 1995), and it might enter service in 2025. The 787 programme went two years without a delivery due to production-line issues.
Boeing needs a new single-aisle type, a 757 replacement / 321XLR competitor, a lighter 777X, and to get them out on-time and without the issues and delays which have beset their three most-recent programmes.
Australians and the world will soon be flying on a fleet of modern and efficient aircraft. Win-Win.
Part of the QF order undoubtedly includes replacements for the 717s which they or their partners are selling to Delta - which operates the 717s and A220s for quite different purposes and intends to maintain . As an orphan aircraft, the 717 only works w/ considerable fleet size and QF and its partners cannot make the economics work. They used their 717s on longer segments than DL which makes it more efficient to use new...
Part of the QF order undoubtedly includes replacements for the 717s which they or their partners are selling to Delta - which operates the 717s and A220s for quite different purposes and intends to maintain . As an orphan aircraft, the 717 only works w/ considerable fleet size and QF and its partners cannot make the economics work. They used their 717s on longer segments than DL which makes it more efficient to use new generation aircraft.
The A220-300 is the most efficient and comfortable small or medium sized mainline aircraft. Bombardier developed an outstanding aircraft in the C Series but was way over their head in being able to manufacture and sell it to mainline airlines. While Boeing tried to kill the C Series - the A220-300 is a direct competitor to the 737 MAX 7 - Airbus took into their fold for pennies on the dollar. Airbus is finally getting A220 production rates up to viable levels which is part of why QF is able to take delivery of A220s as soon as this fall.
The A220 is an outstanding aircraft and will serve QF well.
The fact that QF is basically committing to a predominantly Airbus fleet is not good news for Boeing but also indicative of the much stronger product lineup that Airbus has.
As I understand it, DL will close out its B717 fleet by 2025. Knowing Delta, it might stretch it a year or two, but no need to purchase airframes from QF.
Delta is no longer acting on its guidance to remove its 717 fleet. They are reactivating the 717s that were parked - the 717 fleet fell to about 65 but they are rebuilding it to about 88 aircraft. The reason they bought the ex-Qantas 717s is to ensure they have parts to support the fleet for a number of years. They have not publicly stated how long they intend to keep their 717 fleets -...
Delta is no longer acting on its guidance to remove its 717 fleet. They are reactivating the 717s that were parked - the 717 fleet fell to about 65 but they are rebuilding it to about 88 aircraft. The reason they bought the ex-Qantas 717s is to ensure they have parts to support the fleet for a number of years. They have not publicly stated how long they intend to keep their 717 fleets - but few airlines actually provide that data for any fleet.
The bottom line is that Delta will operate both the 717 -which is used predominantly on segments typically up to 2 hours from ATL, DTW and MSP while the A220s are used from DL's coastal hubs - BOS, NYC, LAX and SEA as well as SLC. The A220 is best suited for longer flights and offers cabin advantages that allow it compete against other airlines' larger mainline aircraft.
QF is not large enough to keep both the 717 and the A220 and is wisely going w/ the A220 for its sole small mainline aircraft.
Qantas also has a couple dozen Embraer 190s operating by Alliance Airlines on regional routes. I expect the A220s will help replace these too
I wonder what will happen with the q400s, but if they replace them with a220s it will make Rex fall behind in the Australian regional market
I certainly hope so! The Embraer 190s on the ADL-BNE route are long past their use-by date.
I hope Alliance is seamlessly folded into the Qantas stable as soon as possible.
Maybe it's the hour, but how do you get 10 business class seats in a 2-2 config?
i thought it would have to a be 4, 8 or 12...
3 rows of Business on one side, 2 rows on the other.
Good morning (afternoon, or evening depending on where you are in the world). My guess would be the remaining two seats would be 1-1. My next guess would be 2-2 where one of the aisles would have 2 additional seats for a total of 10.
I'm not sure where Ben got his information about 10 in business class but if it is US-style 4 abreast, then 10 does not have to be rows of 4 but 2 rows of 8 and 1 row of 2 on one side with a closet or galley or other cabin fixture taking up the other side of the aisle.
Qantas has indicated there will be 10 seats in business class.
One row could be 2-0 and you could have a lavatory