- Air Canada took delivery of its newest aircraft, the Airbus A220, in December and unveiled it to the public on January 15.
- The airline plans to deploy the aircraft domestically and to US destinations including San Jose, Seattle, and New York.
- The aircraft has a storied history that saw majority ownership in the program being acquired by Airbus after being designed by Canada's Bombardier.
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Air Canada unveiled its first Airbus A220-300 aircraft on Wednesday, showing off the Canadian aircraft that was bought by a European manufacturer who plans to also build them in the US.
The aircraft is one of the most controversial in North America due to Boeing's resistance to and interference in the aircraft's sales in the US market. The manufacturer unsuccessfully attempted to block the purchase of the aircraft by Delta Air Lines, who had been shifting more towards Airbus products in its medium and long-haul fleet with arrivals such as the Airbus A321 and A350-900 XWB.
Though Boeing failed to convince trade regulators of its case, the prospect of a negative decision opened the door for Airbus to take a majority stake in the program and rebrand it as its own. It was then that the Bombardier C Series became the Airbus A220, though most operators still keep the C Series name on the entryway to its aircraft.
Once it took delivery of the aircraft at Bombardier/Airbus' facility in Mirabel near Montreal, Air Canada became the second North American carrier behind Delta Air Lines to operate the Airbus A220, showing national pride doesn't always come first in aviation. Delta uses the aircraft on a variety of domestic routes with one of its longest being New York to Salt Lake City.
JetBlue Airways placed a large order for the aircraft last year, opting to go for an all-Airbus fleet rather than continue with Embraer.
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