- JetBlue Airways on Thursday became the second U.S. airline to receive the Airbus A220 with the first aircraft flying to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
- The A220 is part of a fleet renewal that JetBlue is retiring its smallest jet aircraft, the Embraer E190.
- Passengers can expect to fly the jet in 2021 with the first routes planned from the JetBlue Center of Boston.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Christmas came a bit late for one airline as Thursday was the first delivery of the Airbus A220 to JetBlue Airways, just in time for the new year.
Airbus handed over the keys to JetBlue for the first of the 70 models, which ushered in a new era for the 20-year-old aircraft, which will feature the smallest aircraft retiring and being replaced by one of the newest aircraft currently flying.
The new aircraft, which remains unnamed for the time being but bears the registration N3008J, has been painted in JetBlue’s instantly recognizable blue and white color, but has a new tail design. The pattern is called ‘hop’, the term for the flights that make up a larger voyage, as the curved lines look like airline routes.
Each new JetBlue aircraft type has a new tail design, a trend that began with the arrival of the Airbus A321 in 2013. Passengers sitting near the wings of the A220 will also notice that the design also appears on the wing attachments of the aircraft. painted, known as wings. , in a first for a JetBlue aircraft.
The Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan engines power the aircraft, which according to the airline offers between 19,000 and 25,000 pounds of propulsion, while reducing fuel combustion by 40%. Their fuel efficiency only matches their silence, as their manufacturer says noise levels are halved.
JetBlue has not yet unveiled the inside of the plane, but customers are unlikely to be disappointed as the airline has gradually improved its on-board product, as Business Insider on a flight from New York to Fort Myers, Florida in a pass found refurbished business. Airbus A320. The new cabin experience will almost certainly include free in-flight WiFi, touch screens, on-demand movies and television shows and power stations.
“The interior of JetBlue’s A220 will be just as impressive as the aircraft’s operating capabilities,” the airline said in a statement. “Customers will also enjoy an enhanced flying experience with wider seats, ample overhead and extra large windows.”
The A220 is the fifth aircraft type to join JetBlue’s fleet since its inception at the turn of the century. The arrival comes at an exciting time for the airline as it launches a new service offering for Mint business class and is ready to depart overseas in the new year with service to London with a new aircraft joining the fleet in 2021 , the Airbus A321neoXLR.
JetBlue is the second U.S. airline to fly the aircraft behind Delta Air Lines, which began flying the smaller A220-100 in February 2019 from New York to Boston and Dallas. Delta is now flying the aircraft on routes across the country and has just acquired the larger Dash 300 variant that JetBlue now flies.
Delta’s commission gave the former manufacturer of the A220, Bombardier, the foothold in the US, but also the trade dispute that led to Airbus taking over the project.
The A220 will also power the new take-off flight service, David Neeleman, JetBlue founder, Breeze Airways. And in the north, Air Canada started flying the larger A220-300 in January.
The first routes for the plane have not yet been announced, but JetBlue’s head of revenue and planning, Scott Laurence, said in a previous interview with Business Insider that Boston will see the new plane first. Initial service will take place on existing short-haul routes such as Boston-Washington so that flight crews can get acquainted with the new aircraft.
“We plan to make sure the introduction is flawless and that we want to give the aircraft a little boost in the fly which is easily an initial network that is easily managed,” Laurence said.
Laurence then said the plane would depart further west and fly to cities such as Austin and Denver before finally serving the West Coast. The A220 has a rural range of 3,350 nautical miles that JetBlue plans to take full advantage of with ultimate transcontinental service from Boston to cities such as Sacramento, California and Portland, Oregon during the summer.
“The aircraft is so flexible for us,” Laurence said, as the aircraft can fly almost any route that JetBlue operates in the U.S. and most of its current international routes. New York will also see the aircraft on routes to cities such as Albuquerque and the A220 will help JetBlue’s new hybrid route network.
The pandemic caused JetBlue to launch new routes to secondary markets such as Charleston, South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina and Richmond, Virginia, to cities as far as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They are called ‘long, thin routes’ because demand is often mediocre, but the right aircraft can make the route viable. And the A220 has the economy to make it work.
“We’re going to stretch the legs of this plane,” Laurence said. “It carries huge seat belt costs on long routes, and it’s something we could not do with our E190 fleet.”
The A220 is also being deployed to hard-to-reach airports, including Key West, where the runway is just a mile long and only 5,076 feet. JetBlue launches uninterrupted flights to the southernmost city of the Lower 48 in New York and Boston in 2021 with the Embraer E190 and has been forced to limit the number of seats it sells to meet airport standards.
But for the A220, it’s nothing the plane can handle.
“If we start integrating the A220 into the network, some of our more challenging airports will become priorities for the A220,” Laurence said. “Key West is probably one of them.”