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August 6, 2019 - by MICHAEL GUBISCH for flightglobal.com

(Fliegerfaust note: As revealed by Sylvain Faust a while ago, the longer A220-500 (CSeries CS500) has been designed years ago by Bombardier and has been flying "virtually" for years also. Airbus only needs to make the decision as of when to proceed with it. So far, apart from Air France now, Delta and British Airways (in 2012) and Korean Air (in 2019) did say publicly that they would order the longer A220 version if it was available. The A220-500 aircraft would be Airbus lethal weapon facing Boeing 737-800 and MAX 8. The A220-300 is the base model making the -500 its first expanded version and using the same wing as the A220-300. The -100 is a contraction model from the base -300)

Air France-KLM chief executive Ben Smith has indicated that the group would be interested in a stretch version of the Airbus A220, as a means of invigorating its French-based short- and medium-haul network.

The A220 is available in the baseline -100 version, with capacity for 135 passengers, and as the -300, which can accommodate 160.

Bombardier developed the aircraft formerly known as the CSeries – before control of the programme was transferred to Airbus in 2018 – and studied potential larger versions of the twinjet.

The Canadian airframer's commercial aircraft president Fred Cromer told FlightGlobal in 2016 that the aircraft's existing wing would be capable of supporting a larger derivative.

In May, Airbus disclosed a maximum take-off weight increase – available as an option from 2020 – to boost range.

Read more https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/air-france-shows-interest-in-a220-stretch-460099/