Airbus performed the inaugural flight of the first A220 produced at the Mobile plant, in the USA, on Tuesday. The aircraft, an A220-300 model, will be delivered to Delta Air Lines, which has an order for 50 units, in addition to 45 A220-100 jets.
The Mobile factory until then produced only the A320 as part of investments made by the European planemaker to avoid US sanctions. After acquiring the Bombarider C Series program, Airbus decided to expand the unit in the state of Alabama to increase the assembly fee for the A220, which was only produced in Canada.
Airbus is also using Mobile to assemble the A220s that will be delivered to another U.S. airline, JetBlue. And there is also an order from Breeze Airways, a new company founded by David Neeleman, which comprises 60 aircraft.
In January, the European manufacturer took over Bombardier’s shares in the A220 program and may have the entire project in the future when the government of the Province of Quebec decides whether to stay in society or not.
As of April, the A220 had 642 orders of which 113 had been delivered to eight customers.
