Originally Posted by
sailingfun
The 220's are doing just fine for Delta. Delta has however shown themselves over history to be uniquely capable of operating oddball and orphaned aircraft. Think Convair 880, L1011, MD90, 717, L100, MD11 and a complete in-house reengining of the DC8.
Keep in mind Airbus bought the A220 to kill a competitor and insure Boeing did not get the aircraft. It would not surprise me in the least that when aircraft orders slow they end the program completely. It then becomes another orphaned aircraft.
I think Delta is helped by having their own GTF engine shop and massive engineering department too. My buddies tell me that Delta has come up with tons of patches and workarounds for that thing. My buddies at JetBlue are jealous because they haven't cracked the code yet and have a lot of problems Delta has solved with proprietary procedures. I can't imagine the problems a small company like breeze without the engineering or resources Delta has getting through that. And the number of blue parked 220s I see in CHS attests to that.