On the afternoon of April 2, three days before the official start of the 2022 edition of the International Air and Space Fair, the SWISS Airbus A220-300 arrived in Santiago de Chile, in what became the model’s debut in South America.
Summoned by Airbus representatives, we went to the FIDAE site to wait for it and photograph its arrival. After some schedule and itinerary modifications, after 18:00 local time the Airbus A220 with registration HB-JCU landed on runway 17R, ending a flight that had started in Panama and lasted almost six hours.
The aircraft arrived in Chile as part of a marketing tour that took it to Mexico – in addition to Panama – and will have stopovers in Argentina and Brazil, seeking to seduce potential customers. At the Chilean air show, it will be part of the static exhibition and will perform demonstration flights between April 5 and 8.
According to Airbus, the A220 offers an increased range capability of up to 3,450 nautical miles (6,390 km), making it the ideal aircraft for domestic and intra-regional traffic in Latin America. The A220’s cabin is the largest in its size category, with wider seats in economy class and 20% more overhead storage space per passenger.
The penetration of the A220 – formerly Bombardier CSeries – in the region is zero, while in the rest of the world it already operates in four continents as part of 15 airlines’ fleet. With 740 aircraft ordered by 25 customers, the A220 seeks to compete head-to-head with the other major contender in the segment: the Embraer E2.
