Airbus wipes 40 A220 aircraft from latest order book

AIRBUS has confirmed that it has wiped 40 A220 aircraft from its order book.

It left the European air-framer with an order deficit for the plane, which is part-made by Bombardier workers in Northern Ireland.

The complete wings and fuselage components for the jet are made within the Canadian aerospace giant’s Belfast operation, which remains up for sale.

Around 1,000 of the company’s 3,500 workforce are understood to be involved with the A220, previously known as the Bombardier C-Series.

The cancelled orders have been attributed to US operator Republic Airway Holdings.

In 2010, the company ordered 40 of what were then known as the CS300. Re-branded the A220300 after Airbus took a majority stake in the programme in July 2018, the jet is the larger version of the series. The cancellation of the order, almost 10 years on, left Airbus with a deficit of 23 A220s on its order book for last month.

In February, Airbus confirmed that five of the smaller A220-100 jets had been removed from its order book.

Although the company was not identified, they have been attributed to the five jets ordered by Swiss-based business charter carrier PrivatAir, which filed for insolvency at the end of last year.

The updated figures released by Airbus confirmed it now has orders for 421 A220-300 and 90 A220-100 jets on its books.

A total of 80 jets in the series have been delivered to date.

The latest major order for the narrow body aircraft came on July 31, when Air France-KLM placed an order for 60 A220-300 planes.