Qantas first ordered Airbus A220 aircraft in 2022. Now, a year and a half later, the first airframe was delivered to the airline. Over 20 more airframes will follow in the coming years. Continue reading to learn more about...
Qantas first ordered Airbus A220 aircraft in 2022. Now, a year and a half later, the first airframe was delivered to the airline. Over 20 more airframes will follow in the coming years.
Continue reading to learn more about the first airframe, which wears a special livery, and Qantas A220s overall.
QantasLink’s first A220 wears a special livery. (Credit: Qantas)
Qantas Will Add 29 Airbus A220s to Its Fleet
In May 2022, Qantas placed a major Airbus order for 12 A350-1000s, 20 A220-300s, and 20 A321XLRs. Then, in June 2023, the airline added another nine A220-300s to the order backlog.
The A350s are intended for Project Sunrise which aims to launch non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Europe and the East Coast of the US. The latter two types are for renewing the Qantas’s domestic fleet. The A220-300s in particular are destined for QantasLink where they will gradually replace the airline’s aging Boeing 717s.
While QantasLink currently has 12 717s in its fleet (average age just under 22 years), it also stored eight other airframes earlier this year for a total of 20 airframes. The original order was presumably meant to replace these airframes one-to-one with the A220.
QantasLink’s A220s will be delivered by 2027.
Initially, Qantas plans to use the A220 on flights between Melbourne and Canberra. These flights are, at just 290 miles, very short.
That said, as more airframes enter the fleet, Qantas also plans to use the aircraft on other domestic and even shorter international routes. Thanks to the range of the A220 (roughly double that of the 717), Qantas can use the aircraft on flights between any two points in Australia.
The A220s are replacing QantasLink’s 717s.
Qantas Takes Delivery of Its First A220
The first Qantas Airbus A220 rolled out of the paint shop back in November 2023, surprising aviation enthusiasts around the world with its striking Flying Art Series livery. Following the likes of Wunala Dreaming and Nalanji Dreaming, Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa is the sixth aircraft in the series.
The artwork was created by Maringka Baker and depicts the Dreaming story of two sisters traversing remote Australia together to find their way home. Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa translates to The Two Sisters Creation Story.
With the livery (which took 100 painters, 130 stencils, and over 20,000 dots to get done) and test flights finished, on December 15, 2023, Qantas took delivery of the aircraft registered VH-X4A. That made Qantas the 20th operator of the type in the world and the first operator of the type in the Pacific.
The livery consists of over 20,000 dots. (Credit: Qantas)
The first QantasLink A220 is part of the same series as the legenday Wunala Dreaming 747.
Currently, the aircraft is being ferried from Airbus’s facility in Mirabel near Montreal, Canada, to Qantas’s base in Sydney.
The aircraft took off from Mirabel Airport as QantasLink flight 6075 on December 16, 2023, at 10:25AM. It first flew to Vancouver before departing bound for Honolulu, United States, on December 17, 2023. After Honolulu, it will make a stop in Nadi, Fiji, before departing on the final leg to Sydney.
Six more A220s are expected to join QantasLink’s fleet by mid-2025. The remaining airframes are scheduled for delivery by the end of 2027.
QantasLink A220s Seat 137 Passengers
The first QantasLink A220 is equipped with a total of 137 seats. This includes 10 recliner business class seats in a 2-2 layout and 127 economy class seats in a 2-3 layout.
For comparison, QantasLink 717s come in two configurations:
110 total seats including 12 in business class and 98 in economy class 125 total seats in an all-economy class configurationThe seating layout on the 717 is the same as on the A220 – i.e. a 2-2 layout in business class and a 2-3 layout in economy class.
QantasLink’s Fokker 100s and Airbus A320s are in all-economy class configurations with 100 and 180 seats respectively.
With the two-class A220 seating more passengers in total than both of the 717 configurations and the Fokker 100, chances are all 29 airframes will be delivered in the same 137-seat configuration.
That said, if at some point Qantas decides to use the A220s as a replacement for the QantasLink A320s, we might see an all-economy class configuration. (As an example, airBaltic’s A220 can fit 148 passengers in an all-economy class configuration compared to QantasLink A320’s 180 passengers.)
QantasLink A220s Will Be Named After Australian Wildlife
Earlier this year, Qantas ran a contest in which it asked Australians to nominate Australian wildlife-themed names to use for its A220 aircraft. Starting from the second airframe (the first airframe is named after the Aboriginal artwork), the A220s will be named after Australian animals.
At this point, ten were revealed: crimson rosella, echidna, koala, little red flying fox, platypus, rainbow lorikeet, sugar glider, Tasmanian devil, wedge-tailed eagle, whale shark. More will be announced once the airline is ready to take delivery of more A220s.
Of those, I’d say sugar glider and Tasmanian devil are my favorites!
Summary
Qantas first ordered the A220 in May 2022 when it committed to getting 20 airframes and since then expanded the order by an additional nine airframes. The first airframe was delivered on December 15, 2023, and the airline expects six more in the coming year and a half. The A220s are going to replace the airline’s aging 717s.
Equipped with 137 seats, the A220s will be named after Australian wildlife. The first airframe, though ,wears a special livery and is part of Qantas’s eyecatching Flying Art Series.
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