Montreal, Canada - The first Airbus A220-300 intended for the North American carrier Air Canada made its maiden flight in Mirabel, Montreal.
The aircraft is the first of 45 Airbus A220-300s from Air Canada's order book with the European aircraft manufacturer. The Canadian flag carrier expects to take delivery of its first A220-300 in the coming weeks. The first scheduled flight will be conducted in early 2020.
With this delivery, Air Canada becomes the first airline in Canada to operate the Canadian-designed and -built A220 jet. It will also be the first airline in North America to fly the larger A220-300 variant of the A220 Family.
Besides its domestic routes, Air Canada is planning to fly the A220 from its bases in Canada to the destinations in the United States, such as Montreal to Seattle and Toronto to San Jose.
The A220 was originally designed and developed as CSeries by the Canadian aircraft manufacturer. Due to some financial difficulties and marketing problems, Bombardier sold the majority stake of the program to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus last year in July.
Around 100 Airbus A220 jets are currently flying with six operators on routes in Asia, America, Europe and Africa.