The new A220-family was introduced the other day. And before you say "did you misprint that?", let me just say that after Airbus overtake of Bombardier, they've re-branded the CS100 / CS300 into A220-100 / A220-300.




As Finnair is about to renew its narrowbody fleet, I am wondering if these A220 birds would make sense. They are 100-150 seaters and in that segment supposed to have excellent efficiency and at the same time offer much better carry-on space than Embraers (and ATR...).

I assume there is less "commonality" between A320 and A220 than the rest of Airbuses, but if replacing E190 and possibly ATR, then there still would be commonality gains.

The ≈3000nm range covers all AY could ask for, including Russia, Eastern China, Northen India, ME and so on.

There is a huge backlog of 364 frames, with only 38 deliveries so far. But Finnair is looking to renew and very likely have time to wait for later slots.

So what do you think? Is this a good fit, for say high-frequency and/or thin routes? Or, knowing that Finnair has gone for large A321 with high density cabins and basically one-class config, is A220 all wrong?