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By Bjorn Fehrm

May 5, 2025, © Leeham News: We started the articles series about stretching the A220 to a capacity in the A320neo range last week by going through the development of the A220-100 and -300, how it’s designed and compares to the competition in the 100 to 140 seat segment.

Now, we analyze what we need to change to bring the capacity to the level of the A320neo and whether changes to the wing and engines, in addition to prolonging the fuselage, are necessary when we increase its capacity.

We use the Leeham Aircraft Performance and Cost Model (APCM) to look at the design data for the A220-300 and discuss what it will mean to make the different changes.

Figure 1. A rendering of an A220-500. Source: Leeham Co.

Summary:

• The A220-300 has field and range performance that matches an A320neo.
• As we increase the length of the A220 fuselage to match the seating capacity of the A320neo, we run into tricky trade situations regarding range and field performance for an A220-500.