Monday, November 12, 2018

Airbus A220 makes maiden landing in Nepal

The newest addition to the Airbus family of commercial aircraft – the A220 – has made its first visit to Nepal as part of a world demonstration tour.
The A220-300, bearing airBaltic livery, went on display at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) yesterday and today. As part of its world demonstration tour, the jet touched down at the Zhuhai Airshow in China on November 5, according to the Airbus.
"The aircraft – formerly known as the CSeries –landed in Chengdu on November 9 and then toured Koh Samui in Thailand on November 10,"aircraft interiors marketing director of Airbus Christine De Gagne said, adding that the jet is scheduled to land in Istanbul, Turkey today evening. "It will then return to airBaltic’s base in Riga, Latvia on Wednesday."
According to Gagne, there have been more than 400 orders for the A220 family of aircraft. So far 43 A220-300s have been delivered, she said. "The aircraft can accommodate 145 passengers and offers exceptional performance, comfort and profitability and is well-suited for high altitude airports such as Kathmandu."
In October 2017, Airbus struck an agreement with Bombardier to become a partner and 50 per cent majority shareholder in the CSeries programme, with Bombardier and the Quebec, government’s investment arm, Investissement Québec, owning approximately 34 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
The deal was finalised on July 1 and later the Airbus officially rebranded the CSeries as the A220. The A220 family comprises two models, the A220-100 (with 100-135 seats) and A220-300 (with 130-160 seats), formerly Bombardier’s CS100 and CS300.
Powered by Pratt & Whitney’s PW1500G geared turbofan engines, the jet offers at least a 20 per cent lower fuel burn per seat compared to previous generation aircraft, the airbus said in a statement. With a range of up to 3,200 nautical miles (5,020-km), the A220 offers the performance of larger single aisle aircraft.
Its biggest customers are Delta Air Lines (75 aircraft), airBaltic (50 aircraft) and Air Canada (45 aircraft). The only airline customer in Asia is Korean Air, which has eight A220-300s in its fleet and two more on order.

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