A220 Quietly Becomes an Airbus Star — CS300 Revenge

This is going to surprise a lot of people. Did you know that the A220 program has quietly become an Airbus star performer? And because of this, the A220 is helping the Pratt & Whitney GTF shine, too. Let's dig into the numbers and show you. Take AirInsight on a Test Flight 7 days full access — premium analysis and the complete data model library — for $1. No commitment. Start My Test Flight ? Let's look at 2026 through this morning. The left table is the first flight (production proxy), and the right table is the deliveries table. The highlighted rows are P&W powered. Pretty good if you ask us. P&W has a big footprint at Airbus. Bigger, we suspect, than many realize. [caption id="attachment_189521" align="aligncenter" width="580"] AirInsight[/caption] Take a look at the tables for the A220. It's #3 in terms of first flights this year and #2 for deliveries. That's quite a swing from where it was even a year ago. The following chart provides perspective from 2016. That bright red block has been rising steadily every year. Remember John Leahy dismissing this as "a nice little airplane?" He did ot like it at all. Indeed, your correspondent remembers well the time I had the temerity to question Mr. Leahy about the future of the A319neo, since it was 12,000 pounds heavier than the then CS300. He did not care about the question and answered derisively, saying the A319neo was far more capable. And here we are, the CS300 revenge in plain sight. [caption id="attachment_189522" align="aligncenter" width="580"] AirInsight[/caption] To be fair, Mr. Leahy was able to chill the CSeries program's marketing, but it took Boeing's ITC case to put it in the freezer. It was Airbus that defrosted the program and turned it into the success it is today. Focusing on the A220 program the following chart shows how Airbus had to work through a sloppy supply chain. Since 1Q25, it's clear the program has steadied. We highlight 1Q26 to point out that there were impressive 12 deliveries at an average of 28 days. That kind of performance is what we see for the MAX and A320/321. Programs with more robust industrialization. Adding another line at Mobile has clearly had a positive impact. [caption id="attachment_189523" align="aligncenter" width="580"] AirInsight[/caption] Despite the recent Airbus earnings event that threw Pratt & Whitney under the bus, the data tells a more complex story. It appears that Airbus's sensitivity to the GTF stems from the fact that so many customers want it. Want evidence? Here it is. [caption id="attachment_189524" align="aligncenter" width="580"] AirInsight[/caption] Pratt & Whitney has become a very important supplier to Airbus. The A220, exclusively P&W powered, has added to that. The A220's rise compounds Airbus's dependency on P&W. Of course, it helps that Airbus's best-seller, the A321, is most often ordered with GTF engines. Now we have a better idea of why Guillaume Faury spoke the way he did. It must be frustrating that P&W is taking care of other existing customers with AOG rather than Airbus. But what would Mr. Faury do if he were running P&W? Bottom Line It appears Airbus has turned the A220 program around. This final chart makes the case. Look how the deliveries improved every year. 1Q26 still has a few days of February to go and all of March. [caption id="attachment_189525" align="aligncenter" width="580"] AirInsight[/caption] It's looking very good for the A220. And, by extension, P&W.

US Flight Planner - US DoT On-Time Data	Airbus vs Boeing - Official OEM Data
US Airline Schedule Performance - US DoT Data	Daily OEM Production & Deliveries -

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