Airbus A220 (Bombardier C Series)

The Airbus A220, previously known as Bombardier CSeries (or C Series), is a family of narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range jet airliners originally designed and built by the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace, now marketed by Airbus and built by Airbus Canada Limited Partnership.

The 108 to 133-seat CS100 (now A220-100) made its maiden flight on 16 September 2013, was awarded an initial type certification by Transport Canada on 18 December 2015, and entered service on 15 July 2016 with Swiss Global Air Lines. The 130 to 160-seat CS300 (now A220-300) first flew on 27 February 2015, received an initial type certification on 11 July 2016, and entered service with launch customer airBaltic on 14 December 2016. Early operators recorded better-than-expected fuel burn and dispatch reliability, as well as positive feedback from passengers and crew.

Airbus acquired a 50.01% majority stake in the CSeries program in October 2017, with the deal closing in July 2018. As part of the deal, Bombardier retained a 31% stake in the aircraft and Investissement Québec 19%. Airbus plans to open a second assembly line for the aircraft at its Mobile, Alabama factory.

The 108 to 133-seat CS100 (officially BD-500-1A10) made its maiden flight on 16 September 2013, was awarded an initial type certification by Transport Canada on 18 December 2015 and entered service on 15 July 2016 with Swiss Global Air Lines. The 130 to 160-seat CS300 (officially BD-500-1A11) first flew on 27 February 2015, received an initial type certification on 11 July 2016, and entered service with launch customer airBaltic on 14 December 2016.

Service entry saw 21% lower fuel burn for the CS300 replacing B737-300s with a dependability above 99.3%, and 25% lower costs than the RJ100 for the CS100, while the passengers' and pilots' feedback is positive for the cabin and flight controls.

In October 2017, Airbus and Bombardier announced a partnership on the CSeries program, with Airbus acquiring a 50.01% majority stake for no outlay, with Bombardier keeping 31% and Investissement Québec 19%, with a second assembly line to open in Mobile, Alabama. When the deal closes in the second half of 2018, Airbus will assist in marketing and servicing.

Production

Production was set to ramp from seven CSeries deliveries in 2016 to 30-35 aircraft in 2017 after Pratt & Whitney PW1000G supply and start issues are resolved. Production could increase to 90-120 aircraft per year by 2020. The CSeries delivery goal for 2017 was revised to 20 to 22, due to Pratt & Whitney delivery delays. With 14 deliveries completed by December 11, reaching this target would require delivering six aircraft in less than the three weeks remaining in the year.

After months of engine delays, Korean Air received its first CS300 on Friday 22 December 2017. Its second should arrive in Seoul on 1 January 2018 and both should enter service on 16 January 2018, the carrier should receive its eight remaining jets in 2018 among 40 CSeries deliveries.

Airbus takeover

On 16 October 2017, Airbus and Bombardier Aerospace announced a partnership on the CSeries program, with Airbus acquiring a 50.01% majority stake, Bombardier keeping 31% and Investissement Québec 19%, to expand in an estimated market of more than 6,000 new 100-150 seat aircraft over 20 years. Airbus’ supply chain expertise should save production costs but headquarters and assembly remain in Québec while U.S. customers would benefit from a second assembly line in Mobile, Alabama. This transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in 2018.[101] Airbus did not pay for its share in the program, nor did it assume any debt. Airbus insists that the company has no plan to buy out Bombardier's stake in the C-series program, and Bombardier would remain a strategic partner after 2025.

While assembling the aircraft in U.S. could circumvent the 300% duties proposed in the Cseries dumping petition by Boeing, Airbus CEO Tom Enders and Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare assured that this factor did not drive the partnership, but negotiations began in August after the April 2017 filing and the June decision to proceed and, as a result, Boeing was suspicious. Leeham News commented that "the Airbus-Bombardier partnership [...] thrusts a big stick up Boeing's tailpipe".

The 2010 order for 40 CS300s and 40 options from Republic Airways Holdings – then owner of exclusive A319/320 operator Frontier Airlines – pushed Airbus into the A320neo re-engine. Airbus COO-customers John Leahy initially avoided ignoring the CSeries and allowing it to grow as Boeing did with Airbus and aggressively competed against Bombardier. He thinks by "pressing the Trump Administration for 300% tariffs, [Boeing] forced them into our hands", and Boeing doesn’t care about the present cost to "not to have competition, [...] an admission of a weak product line and a weak commercial organization that they say we just can’t afford that competition".

With the Airbus corporate strength behind it, AirInsight anticipate the CSeries market share of the 100-149 seat market over 20 years will increase from 40% of 5,636 aircraft (2254 sales) to 55-60%, around 3,010 aircraft. Supplier costs could be cut by 30-40% by Airbus' market power, as a 10% procurement costs decrease would add six gross margin points to the program. Boeing seems seriously concerned it cannot match fleet package deals enabled by the partnership. A CS500 stretch would allow Airbus to enlarge its A320-family replacement to better compete with the proposed Boeing New Midsize Airplane. Airbus will assist in marketing and servicing.

At the Dubai Airshow in November 2017, Embraer assured it will monitor Airbus marketing involvement until antitrust immunity is granted, for dumping pricing after, and that Brazil will sue Canada for its subsidies to Bombardier through the World Trade Organization. Bombardier plans to deliver 40-45 CSeries in 2018 as regulatory clearance would happen likely toward the end of the year. Embraer think Airbus will not be able to lower the CSeries supply chain costs enough to make it profitable and view it as heavy, expensive and adapted to long, thin routes exceeding the E-jet E2 range, whose operational capabilities will win a majority of the market share as commitments should follow certification and entry into service.

During competition investigation, the partners operate separately and clean teams with privileged access to competitively sensitive data but separated from their management are planning the integration, evaluating synergies and preparing communications to regulators.

Operational history

airBaltic became the first operator of the CS300 in December 2016

Swiss began revenue flight on 15 July 2016 with a flight between Zurich and Paris.[excessive citations] CS300 revenue service began on 14 December 2016 with a flight from Riga to Amsterdam in a 145-seat two-class configuration.

Swiss stated: "The customer feedback is very positive with the expected remarks concerning the bright cabin, reduced noise, enough leg room and space for hand luggage as well as the comfortable seats. Also the feedback from our pilots is gratifying. They especially like the intuitive flying experience." AirBaltic lauded lower noise levels for passengers and more space for luggage than its Boeing 737-300s.

Bombardier targets a 99% dispatch reliability at entry into service. In August 2016, Swiss reported "much higher" reliability than other new aircraft, citing Airbus’ A380, A320neo and Boeing’s 787. After four months of service with Swiss, this goal seems to have been met based on only three aircraft and 1,500 hours flown; "nuisance messages" from the integrated avionics suite and the PW1000G start-up delays have been the main griefs. Dispatch reliability rates of 99% were met in April 2017. A year after introduction, launch operators had fewer issues than expected for a new program. Air Baltic have 99.3%-99.4% dispatch reliability, similar to the established Q400 but less than the 99.8% Boeing 737 Classic benefiting from its ubiquitous presence. It improved to 99.85% in October 2017.

Since the PW1500G mount generates less strain on the turbine rotor assembly than the A320neo's PW1100G, it doesn't suffer from start-up and bearing problems but still from premature combustor degradation. After 28,000 engine hours in 14 in-service aircraft with a powerplant dispatch reliability of 99.9%, Swiss replaced an engine pair in May 2017 after 2,400 h, while AirBaltic replaced another one in June. An updated combustor liner with a 6,000–8,000 h limit has been developed and a third generation for 2018 will raise it to 20,000 h in benign environments.

Upon introduction, both variants are performing above their original specifications and the CS300 range is 2% better than the brochure, as are its per seat and per trip cost. airBaltic reports a 2600 l/h fuel consumption against 3000 l/h for its Boeing 737-300 with similar capacity. It then claimed 21% better fuel efficiency. Fuel burn is more than 1% lower than the marketing claims and Bombardier will update its performance specifications later in 2017. The CSeries is 25% cheaper to fly than the Avro RJ100 which it replaces at Swiss. On long missions, the CS100 is up to 1% more fuel efficient than the brochure and the CS300 up to 3%. The CS300 burns 20% less fuel than the Airbus A319, 21% less than the 737 Classic while the CS100 burns 18 to 27% less per seat than the Avro RJ.

Swiss initially flew six sectors a day and now for up to nine a day with an average time of 1 h 15 min. Air Baltic's flight length averages 3 h, and the average fleet daily utilisation is 14 h. In September 2017, over 1.5 million passengers had 16,000 revenue flights in the 18 aircraft in service, making up to 100 revenue flights per day on 100 routes: most used are up to 17 hours per day and up to 10 legs per day. Quick 35 min turnarounds even allowed 11 legs per day.

The A Check is scheduled after 850 flight hours, it took initially 5 h and is reduced since to less than 3 h, within an 8 h shift. C Check are scheduled after 8,500 h – typically 3.5 years of operation. Based on in-service experience, A-checks intervals could increase to 1,000 h and C-checks to 10,000 h toward the end of 2019. By September 2017 end, the fleet had undergone 20 A-checks with no findings.