US airline Delta has confirmed an additional order for the Airbus A220 aircraft and its Belfast-made wings.
The Atlanta-based carrier is already the jet’s biggest customer with 56 A220s in its fleet.
Delta has now firmed up orders for another 12 of the larger A220-300 aircraft, bringing its total firm order to 107 A220 aircraft.
The wings for the aircraft are made in Northern Ireland by Spirit Aerosystems, which took over the Bombardier operation in 2020.
Commenting on the news at the Farnborough air show on Tuesday, Airbus said it 220 A220s had been delivered to date.
As of June 30 2022, Airbus had orders for 762 A220 jets on its books.
Delta’s fresh order takes it past US carrier Jet Blue, which has ordered 100 A220 planes.
Breeze Airways (80), Air Lease Corporation (75) and Air France (60) also have sizeable orders in for the narrow body aircraft.
After Delta, Air Baltic has the biggest A220 fleet with 36 in operation, ahead of Swiss (30) and Air Canada (30).
Speaking at Farnborough on Tuesday, Mahendra Nair from Delta hailed the A220-300's “economical, efficient and delivers superior performance”.
He added: “These additional aircraft in the A220 family are an excellent investment for our customers and employees and will be fundamental as we work toward a more sustainable future for air travel.”
Airbus chief commercial officer Christian Scherer said: “Delta was the US launch customer for the A220 and it is great to announce this incremental order that demonstrates how satisfied it is with the A220, economically and from a passenger perspective.
“On top of that, the versatility of this aircraft with the long range and short airfield performance makes it a real winner for our customers.”
