Yesterday marked the delivery of Delta’s 50th Airbus A220 aircraft. The newest A220, the larger A220-300 variant, was delivered to the airline from Airbus’ manufacturing line in Mobile, Alabama.
The delivery of the aircraft marks a significant milestone for the airline and the manufacturer Airbus. To celebrate the auspicious occasion, a group of Delta employees arrived in Mobile to pick up the keys to their latest aircraft.
Delta’s 1st Airbus A220 was delivered back in October of 2018, marking a new era of short-haul travel for the carrier. The 1st revenue flight with passengers was conducted in February 2019, with a service from New York LaGuardia to Boston. This means that the airline has added 50 A220s in just over 26 months, with not even COVID-19 pandemic slowing things down.
While the pandemic meant that it had to pause deliveries between March and September last year, things picked up quickly from there. If we talk about October 2020 alone, Delta took delivery of 12 new A220s, including the 1st, larger A220-300 variant. At 1 point, the airline even took 1 new plane every day of 1 week in October.
In total, Delta has added 19 new A220s since the pandemic first took hold last year. This includes 8 larger -300s and 11 of the smaller -100s.
The A220 has allowed Delta to offer an unprecedented network flexibility. The aircraft can fly nonstop on transcontinental routes such as New York-Los Angeles. However, the carrier has been using these aircrafts on flights from its main hubs to cities across the network, such as Salt Lake City, Sacramento, San Francisco, and many more.
Delta has a total of 95 A220s on order. With 50 aircraft now delivered, the airline officially has 45 more left on the books with Airbus currently. Nearly all of the remaining orders will be of the A220-300, with 41 more set to join the fleet.
Meanwhile, Delta Airlines recently added more flights to France as the European country is once again reopen.
Featured image by Airbus
What do you think of Delta’s A220? How you flown on it? If yes, how was your experience? Let me know in the comments section below.
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