Air Canada is North America's first Airbus A220-300 operator
Air Canada took delivery of its first Airbus A220-300, making it the North American launch operator of the stretched variant of the new narrow-body.
The Montreal-based carrier took delivery of its first A220, registered C-GROV, at Airbus' Montreal Mirabel (YMX) facility on Friday, the European planemaker said in a statement. The delivery occurred less than 10 days after the aircraft's first flight on Dec. 11.
"This is a highly anticipated moment for Air Canada as we welcome this game-changing aircraft into our fleet," said Michael Rousseau, deputy CEO and chief financial officer of Air Canada, in a statement. "The A220 will enable Air Canada to strengthen our position on transborder and transcontinental markets and will be key to our continued growth."
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The airline is scheduled to introduce the A220 between Montreal Trudeau (YUL) and Calgary (YYC) on Jan. 16, according to Cirium schedules. Service will expand to other existing routes, including to New York LaGuardia (LGA) in March, through May.
Air Canada will use the A220 to open new nonstop service between Montreal and Seattle (SEA) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and San Jose, California (SJC) on May 4.
Related: Air Canada Adds New California and Seattle Routes with Airbus A220
The Canadian carrier has outfitted its A220-300s with 137 seats, including 12 in first class and 125 in economy. Each seat has personal in-flight entertainment, and the jet is outfitted with satellite Wi-Fi.
Delta Air Lines was the North American launch operator of the smaller A220-100 in February. The Atlanta-based carrier had 28 of the jets in its fleet at the end of November, according to Airbus.
Air Canada has 45 A220-300s on order with 17 more due in 2020. The aircraft will allow it to retire the Embraer 190 by the end of next year.