Despite its considerable promise from an operational and passenger experience perspective, the Airbus A220 hasn’t had the best time in the last few years. The main source of its misery has been corrosion damage in the type’s Pratt & Whitney GTF engines that relates to a production issue. This has forced airlines to keep some of their jets on the ground for maintenance.
Current fleet data made available by ch-aviation shows that, as we enter November, almost a fifth of the global Airbus A220 fleet is on the ground. Indeed, discounting examples that have already been retired or are in completion, 76 out of 451 A220s are inactive, representing a proportion of approximately 16.85%. Let’s take a closer look at the models and airlines impacted.
SWISS Recently Took Its Entire Airbus A220-100 Fleet Out Of Service
Starting with the smaller Airbus A220-100 variant, which began life as the Bombardier CS100 before the program was sold to Airbus, ch-aviation lists 60 active examples of this model and 11 inactive units. Of the latter, it designates seven of the 11 as undergoing maintenance, with these jets split between five at Delta and one apiece at Bulgaria Air and Croatia Airlines.
Meanwhile, the remaining four are denoted as being in storage, with an even split between two at ITA Airways and two at SWISS. However, the latter total will surely grow in the near future, as SWISS is in the process of grounding its entire nine-jet A220-100 fleet to provide spare engines for its larger A220-300s. Commenting on this withdrawal, SWISS CFO Dennis Weber said that:
“This isn’t a safety issue, but it’s a constant source of effort. The A220-100s will remain grounded. This will take around a year and a half.”
What About The Airbus A220-300?
Moving onto the larger Airbus A220-300 variant, ch-aviation lists 313 active and 64 inactive units of this model on its database (not including six that have already been retired). As detailed in the video below, Air Austral has been a notable casualty of the P&W crisis, and just one of its three A220-300s is active today. Its operations with the type are set to come to an early end in 2026.
Of the 64 inactive A220-300s, ch-aviation notes that 23 are undergoing maintenance or on repair. This figure is split between Air Austral (one), Air Canada (three), Air France (six), airBaltic (three), Bulgaria Air (one), Delta Air Lines (two), ITA Airways (one), JetBlue (two), Korean Air (one), QantasLink (one), and SWISS (two). Much of this maintenance likely concerns the jets’ engines.
This leaves 41 examples that are in storage. Three do not currently have a listed operator, but are ex-Egyptair planes, with two bound for Breeze Airways. The others include Air Austral (one), Air France (seven), Air Manas (one), airBaltic (two), Cyprus Airways (two), Iraqi Airways (five), ITA Airways (six), JetBlue (two), Korean Air (one), and SWISS (two). Meanwhile, the remaining seven have been delivered to lessors but, per ch-aviation, currently have no known operator.
The Picture With Private A220s
Did you know that Airbus Corporate Jets also offers a private version of the A220-100? Known as the ACJ Two Twenty, the first of these luxurious narrowbody twinjets rolled out of the paint shop back in November of 2021, before making its first flight just under a month later.
This variant has been produced in much more limited numbers, and, as such, doesn’t paint such a telling picture of the engine issues currently plaguing the A220 series. Still, it is worth a quick look nonetheless, with ch-aviation showing that two examples are active while one is in storage. All of these are registered to Comlux Aviation Malta, which is the type’s only listed operator.
So, what’s next for the Airbus A220? With almost a fifth of the global fleet on the ground, Air Austral preparing to wind down its operations of the type, and SWISS grounding its A220-100s for at least the next 18 months, it’s fair to say that the series has something of a mountain to climb. As such, Airbus, and the type’s customers, will be hoping for a swift resolution to the P&W issues.
