SJS Maverick

agreed, plus the A220 is made in America so I don’t see his point on that.

av8tor106

is it manufactured ("made" in America) or Assembled in the USA (mobile)? I'm pretty sure that Mobile is an assembly line and the main facility is in Quebec. just my 2 cents.

av8tor106

quote: "The published range of the A220-300 has reached up to 3,550 NM since Airbus' boosted its range in May this year. But Neeleman has long wished for a range of 4,000 NM to give the aircraft the legs to reach hot destinations that are just beyond its current radius"

SJS Maverick

Yes, he knew that. Airbus is already making a business version of the a220 with aux tanks that can reach that distance. There are talks of them making a version with aux tanks in the A220. There’s also talks of airbus making a longer version to get more capacity. Just like how the 737 has evolved and has different variants the same can happen with the A220. I think aux tanks are more likely to happen since airbus is already working on it. I believe breeze wants some of the last orders they have to be extended range.

Swapapotamoose

Problem is MTOW, you can fill the whole thing up with gas tanks and do circles around the globe but if you have to give up payload what’s the point? The A220-5 would compete with the 321 which is the BB for airbus so it’s unlikely. If breeze survives I think they’ll probably go bigger. West jet, azul, tap all have heavies. Breezybois could too but TP would have to figure how to get ppl to fly them for free first.

av8tor106

Aux tanks? and same engines.... keep dreaming pal. what is your fabreeze seniority number?

SJS Maverick

they’re already doing it soooooo…..

Also, I don’t work there.

9mikemike

I think it is a corporate version…No change in gross weight. Corporate airframes are always low on the Z WT so no payload is sacrificed. A pax version would prob have to drop 30 seats to do that. Could be worth it in a longhaul cabin with lay flat seats

SJS Maverick

I get your point but several airframes have started as one thing and evolved to another. Boeing and Airbus have done it to a number of their aircraft. Other examples would be KA90 to KA 200 to KA350XR. Challenger 604 to CRJ200 to CRJ 700 to CRJ 900. Several airframes in the past have been modified to get more performance. I think it’s completely doable. The question is would they want to because as someone said it might eat into the 320 sales.

BeatNavy

The planning and a lot of the design work for an A220-500 has been done. From a sales standpoint, Airbus is limited in their 320 family throughout. Their backlog goes out years and will continue to do so. An a321 costs only a little more to make than an a320, but the price and resultant margin is a lot higher. In other words, Airbus would rather sell a higher priced 321 than 320. If another production line can “eat into” A320 sales, they are still selling a plane in the 160 seat area and freeing up a higher margin 321 production slot, and in theory contributing to the a220 economy of scale needed to bring that program into profitability. They are focusing on ramping up the a220 production, and once that ramp is complete and production costs lowered, I’d expect the -500 to launch. I don’t think Airbus cares about losing future 320 sales—they need the 220 program to get profitable, and they need to optimize production and maximize sales to do that. There’s also supposedly a higher thrust engine (just a PiP for the current engine) coming out in the next few years for the 220 family that will give the -300 better short field performance, and will presumably be used (or maybe just be an option) on the -500.