Airbus sets Pacific Demo tour of A220 regional jet
Airbus will kick off a promotional tour of its A220 regional jet in the Pacific region with a visit on Sunday to the aircraft’s first South Pacific customer Air Vanuatu. The aircraft manufacturer will host a private tour of the aircraft for Air Vanuatu, Airports Vanuatu and Vanuatu Tourism Office employees at Bauerfield Airport in Port Vila before a demonstration flight over Vanuatu’s archipelago on Monday.
Demonstration tour
The demonstration tour will use an A220-300 from launch customer, Latvia’s airBaltic.
After the stop in Port Vila, the airBaltic A220-300 is scheduled to visit Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, New Caledonia (Noumea) and Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby), before returning to Europe via Cambodia (Phnom Penh) and India (Bangalore and New Delhi).
Static displays and demonstration flights have been planned for airline executives and other invited guests at each stop, Airbus said in a statement on Thursday (European time).
Air Vanuatu
Air Vanuatu signed a firm order for four delivered in June 2020, with the aircraft used to boost frequencies on existing routes and expand to new domestic international ports.
“The addition of the A220 into our fleet will give Air Vanuatu flexibility to increase our network and provide additional services to more destinations with a greater level of customer comfort,” chairman Joel Lengsau told reporters in February.
“The new airwill craft
Air Vanuatu’s Australian network
Air Vanuatu’s Australian network comprises flights from Brisbane to Port Vila and to Luganville, from Sydney to Port Vila and between Port Vila and Melbourne.
It also flies to Auckland in New Zealand, Nadi in Fiji and Noumea in New Caledonia.
A220 Aircraft
Powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans, the A220 family comprises two models – the A220100 (100-135 seats) and A220-300 (130-160 seats), formerly Bombardier’s CS100 and CS300.
In May, Airbus said it would offer additional 450nm of range on the A220 from the second half of 2020 thanks to an increase in maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 2.3 metric tonnes.
As a result, the A220-100 would have a range of 3,400nm, while the A220-300 would have a range of 3,350nm.
This was 450nm more than the current published range for the two aircraft. The A220-100’s basic MTOW would increase to 63.1t, from 60.8t currently, while the A220-300 would have a basic MTOW of 69.9t, up from 67.6t.