It has been almost seven years since the CSeries program, now known as the A220 aircraft family, joined Airbus’ commercial aircraft portfolio, when on July 1, 2018, the European plane maker closed the acquisition of an initial 50.1% stake in the C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP), which was jointly controlled by Bombardier and the Government of Québec.
- Launch Customer(s)
-
Swiss Global Airlines
- Length
-
114 ft 9 in (35.0 m)
- Wingspan
-
115 ft 1 in (35.1 m)
- Height
-
37 ft 9 in (11.5 m)
As of April 30, the European plane maker, which established a second final assembly line (FAL), had amassed 904 gross orders for the A220-100 and A220-300. However, the majority of these were for the bigger aircraft, with the A220-100’s first order in 2025 coming on May 28, with Air Niugini adding another two aircraft to its A220 backlog. Simple Flying explores the current A220-100 operators and their networks with the type.
Newest A220-100 Order
On May 28, as Air Niugini’s first A220 entered the final assembly stages just ahead of the aircraft’s delivery, the Papua New Guinea-based airline added another two A220-100 aircraft to its backlog. Airbus orders and deliveries filings showed that on December 27, an undisclosed customer purchased two A220-100s.
Air Niugini
now has eight A220-100 and three A220-300 on order, with the latter being leased on delivery from Azorra, in its backlog. The airline plans to introduce its first A220 into service in September and become the 25th operator of the A220, with the type initially replacing its Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 fleet, and later, its Boeing 737-800s.
Ch-aviation showed that the airline now has three 737-800, four F70, and five F100s, as well as two 767-300ER, one De Havilland Canada Dash 8 Q300, and four Dash 8 Q400 aircraft.
Before the A220 enters service with Air Niugini, its “engineers, cabin crew and pilots have commenced intensive training, with the airline progressing through a comprehensive entry into service program to be ready to welcome the new aircraft during the first week of September,” the airline said.
“All the A220 aircraft will be fitted with comfortable Business and Economy seating, and will offer complimentary WiFi for all customers so they can stream their favorite programs and keep in touch with family, friends, and work while they are travelling.”
Four A220-100 Operators
Still, the A220-100 has remained fairly unpopular, even among operators who have taken delivery of A220-300 aircraft. airBaltic,
the Latvian airline that has 50 A220-300s in its fleet, with the carrier being the launch carrier of the type, while Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), launching the A220-100, for example, has no A220-100.
In a previous interview with AeroTime, Martin Gauss, the now-former President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of airBaltic, said that while the airline had considered the smaller A220, especially to operate flights to airports that limit the size of aircraft that can land, including London City Airport
(LCY), Gauss explained that if you can fill the A220-300, it was simply better to have the larger variant, despite the A220-100’s lower costs.
As of April 30, Airbus had delivered two A220-100 and 22 A220-300, with both deliveries of the former heading to Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport (FCO), where ITA Airways is based, on March 21 (I-ADVG) and April 16 (I-ADVH). No orders for the A220-100 or the A220-300 had been recorded as of April 30, with the European plane maker, which assembles the A220 at either Montréal-Mirabel International Airport (YMX) in Canada or Mobile International Airport (BFM) in the United States, removing a single A220-100 aircraft from its backlog.
There are four airlines flying the A220-100: Bulgaria Air, Delta Air Lines, ITA Airways, and SWISS. The quartet has two, 45, 12, and nine aircraft of the type, respectively, with all four also flying the A220-300.
Related
airBaltic Gets 50th Airbus A220-300 With Special Livery
airBaltic welcomed its first Airbus A220-300, then known as the CSeries CS300, in 2016.
Bulgaria Air’s A220-100 Network
Bulgaria Air welcomed its first two A220-100 aircraft in 2024, with Airbus
delivering LZ-LIS in September 2024 and LZ-VIE in December 2024, according to ch-aviation records. By the time of the second delivery, Bulgaria Air already had four A220-300s, which it welcomed between June 2023 and March 2024. In total, it had ordered seven A220 aircraft, and Airbus delivered the airline’s seventh A220 on May 15, completing the order.
Still, when it welcomed its sixth A220 and second A220-100, the Bulgarian carrier praised the A220 for its “spacious and quiet passenger cabin, an innovative lighting system, adaptive air conditioning, and the largest baggage compartments in its class,” as well as the aircraft’s wider seats and large windows. At the time, Bulgaria Air
said that LZ-VIE would fly the airline’s domestic and international routes in Europe and the Middle East, with the A220-100 welcoming 1100 economy and eight business class passengers.
According to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning tool, Bulgaria Air has scheduled 33 weekly departures from Bulgaria, either Sofia Vasil Levski Airport (SOF) or Varna Airport (VAR), including six weekly flights between the two Bulgarian cities with the A220-100.
Delta Air Lines, The Largest A220-100 Operator
While 
Delta Air Lines
was not the launch customer of the type, the US-based airline has the largest fleet of A220, namely A220-100 and A220-300 aircraft, in the world. In addition to 45 A220-100, the carrier also has 33 A220-300s, according to ch-aviation records.
Bombardier,
which at the time held a majority stake in CSALP, announced that Delta Air Lines ordered up to 125 CSeries CS100 aircraft on April 28, 2016, which included 75 firm orders and 50 options. The airline had the option to convert CS100 orders to the CS300 following the delivery of the 36th aircraft, AviationWeek reported a day after the order was announced. Per Reuters, industry sources said that Bombardier offered steep discounts in order to restart the program with a major deal, with reported discounts ranging from 66.6% to 75%.
However, deliveries to Delta Air Lines faced issues after 
Boeing
filed a dispute against the order, alleging that Bombardier offered steep discounts to the airline. The US government, which was then led by President Donald Trump, imposed initial import tariffs of around 220% on the CSeries in September 2017, raising them to 292.21% in December 2017. The trade dispute resulted in Delta Air Lines delaying the deliveries of the CS100, with the first aircraft of the type being welcomed into the airline’s fleet now as the A220-100 after Airbus acquired the program. In February 2018, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) reversed its viewpoint, concluding that “an industry in the United States is not materially injured or threatened with material injury, and the establishment of an industry in the United States is not materially retarded, by reason of imports of 100- to 150-seat large civil aircraft from Canada […].”
Nevertheless, with 45 A220-100 aircraft, which seat up to 109 passengers, including 12 in ‘Delta First,’ Delta Air Lines has scheduled 1,006 weekly departures on routes ranging from 298 kilometers (160.9 nautical miles) to 2,839 km (1,532 NMI) in May. The latter is a route from Boston Logan International Airport
(BOS) to San Antonio International Airport (SAT), which is the longest A220-100 route in the world.
SWISS’ A220-100 Routes
SWISS
became the launch customer of the A220-100 when the airline welcomed its first CS100, as it was then known, at Zurich Airport
(ZRH). The A220-100, registered as HB-JBA, entered service on July 15, 2016. At the time, the Swiss carrier noted that its A220-100s would seat 125 passengers in an all-economy class configuration. The first four rows are configured in a European business class style with blocked middle seats.
“It was about a year ago that a Bombardier C Series aircraft first touched down on Swiss soil. That visitor from the manufacturer featured a non-SWISS cabin interior and only a provisional SWISS livery. Today, the latest arrival in the SWISS aircraft fleet was presented for the first time to local politicians, representatives of the authorities, business partners, and media representatives from all over the world,” SWISS stated.
SWISS remarked that the aircraft would operate short-haul routes across Europe, including flights to the aircraft-size-limited London-City airport, as well as flights between Sofia and Zurich, which is the only route in the world operated by A220-100 aircraft from two different airlines. With nine A220-100s, the airline has scheduled flights on 40 routes across Europe, including a domestic connection between Geneva Airport (GVA) and Zurich, with a total of 161 weekly departures.
Post-Alitalia A220-100 Deliveries
ITA Airways,
which began operations mere hours after Alitalia collapsed in 2021, has 12 A220-100 aircraft in its fleet. These are configured in an all-economy class configuration with 125 seats with a European business class in front of the narrowbody.
The airline’s A220-100s fly short routes across Europe and inside Italy, with the type’s longest route being from Rome-Fiumicino to London-City, covering a distance of 1,423 km (768.3 NMI). ITA Airways’ A220-100 aircraft are largely based at either Rome-Fiumicino or Milan Linate Airport
(LIN), with the Italian carrier welcoming its first smaller A220 aircraft on October 31, 2023.
