The Airbus A220-500, a deep-dive analysis

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By Bjorn Fehrm

Jan. 20, 2023, © Leeham News: It’s a question “of when, not if" there will be an A220-500, we conclude in Tuesday’s article.

We have known about the -500 since the Bombardier days. A longer CS300 was part of the original concepts when the CS100 and CS300 were developed to safeguard that no decision on the smaller variants precluded a larger variant.

As Airbus A321 grows its share of the A320 lines’ output, an A220-500 makes sense, but only when the two A220 final assembly lines in Mirabel and Mobile can produce enough A220s to satisfy demand.

What would be the characteristics of an A220-500? We use our aircraft design and performance model to determine what is possible.

Figure 1. A rendering of an A220-500 that takes 157 passengers. Source: Leeham Co.

Summary:
  • The Airbus A220 has the base capabilities for a stretch to an A220-500.
  • Some changes/improvements are needed, but these are limited to detailed changes beyond a fuselage stretch.

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