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U.S. embraces A220 as established customer Korean Air develops the aircraft’s network niche
February 15th 2019
Delta debuted its A220 in the U.S. domestic market to unequivocally positive coverage. Read More » The A220’s seatback screens at every seat and a window in the economy lavatory contrasted to recent domestic U.S. flying experiences that have seen more seats, fewer seat back screens and a squeeze on lavatory size.
Delta is using the A220 to fly to competitors’ hubs while Korean Air operates the aircraft on thinner routes between Korea and Japan where there is greater competition from huge LCC growth. The A220 gives Korean Air the frequency it needs but with fewer seats and lower cost of available seat kilometres (CASK).
Korean Air operates the larger A220-300 (127 seats in a 2-3 configuration) while Delta is flying the A220-100, the variant with 12 seats in a 2-2 configuration and 97 in a 2-3 layout. The Atlanta-headquartered carrier has ordered -300s.
Korean Air has an all B737 narrow body fleet but has found a strategic use for the A220. There is speculation the impetus for the original order was leverage with Airbus and Boeing.
Since Airbus took over the CSeries and re-branded it, the aircraft type has won significant orders from Airbus-strong JetBlue and proposed start-up Moxy (project name), backed by David Neeleman of JetBlue. Aside from Korean Air, there are no disclosed operators in East Asia for the A220.
