Air Lease Corporation (ALC) Chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy isn’t convinced that Airbus should launch a stretched version of the A220, the -500. He thinks the risk is too high that the A220-500 would erode the success of the A320neo and Airbus would not be better off, Udvar-Hazy said on September 7 during the Deutsche Bank Aircraft Finance & Leasing Conference. ALC boss not sure launching the A220-500 is a smart thing to do. ALC has orders for 68 A220-300s. When asked if he has conversion rights for a yet-to-be-launched A220-500, Udvar-Hazy replied: “If Airbus is to launch this aircraft, which is not imminent, I think they want us to be a customer of the A220-500. But there are two areas one has to think about on the -500. One: can the production system in Mirabel (Montreal) and Mobile handle a significant increase in production rates of the 220? Today the answer is no.” “Secondly: there is a huge overlap if you do two circles on the A320neo and the A220-500. They almost cover the same territory. So would you want to destroy a really good program that’s a fundamental foundation to Airbus’s success, the A320neo, why would you want to cannibalize that with a 220-500, which could cost more to make today than to make an A320neo.” Udvar-Hazy added: “The problem is not the A220-500 itself, it isn’t the design or the potential of the airplane. It is: can it be built economically in large quantities? And what is the impact on the A320 family? First, there has to be demand. And Pratt & Whitney will have to make some improvements to the engines because it needs a higher-thrust engine. Can we use the same fan diameter as we have on the other A220s, just like between the A350-900 and -1000? I don’t think it is the number 1 priority of Airbus right now.” Not 'if' but 'when' Airbus has been asked about the -500 ever since it acquired the CSeries program from Bombardier in 2017 and called it the A220. The stretch was actually on the design table as the CS500 from the start of the program, but the Canadians first wanted to get the CS100 and CS300 out. Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer has said on multiple occasions in the past year that launching the -500 is not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’. Air France-KLM, and more specifically Air France, is keen on having the stretch launched, Group CEO Ben Smith has repeated before, as it would be a nice addition to the -300s that it is introducing into the fleet. Production rates for the A220 in Mirabel and Mobile currently stand at six per month but will increase to fourteen per month in 2025. As of July 31, Airbus had received orders for 104 A220-100s and delivered 55 of them, and for 670 -300s with 168 having been delivered. Airbus’ top priority right now will be getting its supply chain issues under control. These have made Airbus decide to delay the ramp-up of the A3220neo family production to a rate of 65 per month by six months until early 2024. Udvar-Hazy said it “is virtually impossible for them (Airbus and Boeing) to get anywhere close to what they projected twelve months ago. There are just a lot of elements to achieve those production rates, particularly powerplants, avionics, forgings, and titanium. I can give you a list of thirty different things that impeded the ability of the primary OEMs to achieve their targets. We see a situation where supply and demand are not in equilibrium and I think that for the next three to four years, the demand for young-technology aircraft will be greater than the ability of Airbus and Boeing to produce those aircraft on time. Getting to 100 single-aisle aircraft a month, excluding Embraer, will be very, very ambitious.”
