Boeing dominated the commercial passenger aircraft market for a long time, but it has lost its title as the world's biggest planemaker to Airbus because it's been making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
They almost became Boeing. Boeing basically asked congress to tariff the Bombardier C series so hard that nobody would import it. Congress responded by introducing a tariff even higher than what Boeing asked for. Airbus had a manufacturing plant in the US and made a deal with Bombardier to build the C series there to avoid the tariff. That’s how the A220 came into existence. Initially it was selling so well that Boeing looked into buying Embraer to have competition in the regional jet market.
The a220 is really nice to ride in (though weird size with air Canada running them in a 2-3 layout). The engines are apparently a nightmare, but last I heard we’re now seeing similar issues with pw’s non-geared engines too, so everything is fucked.
It’s a nice plane, but it’s likely at a dead end. It was designed to be stretched and reach into the territory of the A320 and Boeing 737. Airbus doesn’t really have an incentive to stretch it for a couple reasons. It would cut into their A320 sales which is selling like crazy right now. It also has a different cockpit layout to other Airbus aircraft so it’s harder to cross train pilots from an A220 to other Airbus aircraft. Bombardier built a good plane, but the US Congress screwed them to protect Boeing.
They almost became Boeing. Boeing basically asked congress to tariff the Bombardier C series so hard that nobody would import it. Congress responded by introducing a tariff even higher than what Boeing asked for. Airbus had a manufacturing plant in the US and made a deal with Bombardier to build the C series there to avoid the tariff. That’s how the A220 came into existence. Initially it was selling so well that Boeing looked into buying Embraer to have competition in the regional jet market.
The a220 is really nice to ride in (though weird size with air Canada running them in a 2-3 layout). The engines are apparently a nightmare, but last I heard we’re now seeing similar issues with pw’s non-geared engines too, so everything is fucked.
It’s a nice plane, but it’s likely at a dead end. It was designed to be stretched and reach into the territory of the A320 and Boeing 737. Airbus doesn’t really have an incentive to stretch it for a couple reasons. It would cut into their A320 sales which is selling like crazy right now. It also has a different cockpit layout to other Airbus aircraft so it’s harder to cross train pilots from an A220 to other Airbus aircraft. Bombardier built a good plane, but the US Congress screwed them to protect Boeing.
That sucks. It was a nicer ride than any a320 variant I’ve been in recently. Though they’ve all been very old planes now that I think about it…