Airbus celebrates its 12,000th aircraft

An A220 bound for Delta Air Lines was labelled Airbus 12,000 at a ceremony in Mirabel (Canada), a recognition of how multi-national the European plane maker is and how important the new addition to the Airbus family it is.

The aircraft is the 12th A220 delivered to date to Delta Air Lines since the carrier received its first A220 in October 2018. The A220 started scheduled service with Delta in February 2019. Delta is the first US airline to operate the A220 and is the largest A220 customer, with a firm order for 90 aircraft.

This milestone delivery of a Canadian-made Airbus aircraft to a US-based airline highlights the growing presence of Airbus in North America. Since Airbus’ leadership of the A220 programme became effective on 1 July 1 2018, ground was broken in January this year in Mobile, Alabama, for the construction of a second A220 final assembly line, set to start deliveries to US customers in 2020.

Airbus delivered its first aircraft, an A300B2 to Air France, back in 1974. Fast forward to 2010, Airbus handed over its 6,000th aircraft, 36 years after its first. The pace continued to accelerate, taking Airbus just nine years to double that number, reaching today’s 12,000th Airbus aircraft delivery, on 20 May 2019.

See also Longer range A220 in this issue.

www.airbus.com

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