Still facing difficulties in achieving sales of its A220 line in Latin America, Airbus hopes that the first deals involving this family of aircraft will take place soon in Latin America. Amid a restructuring in the airline market in Brazil, the assessment is that the manufacturer’s most recent family can be seen as a complement to the fleets.
“We are very interested in continuing to negotiate the A220”, says the president of Airbus for Latin America and the Caribbean, Arturo Barreira, in an interview with InfoMoney. “It is an aircraft that we believe is a perfect fit for Brazil and Latin America for shorter routes.”
The A220s are a line of smaller commercial jets for medium-distance flights and are one of the company’s bets for the coming years. The aircraft was developed by Canadian Bombardier under the name C Series, but Airbus took over the project in 2017 as the developer faced production problems.
Barreira recalls that the A320 family was part of the airline consolidation process such as the merger between LAN and TAM to form Latam and Avianca and TACA in operations in Colombia and Central America. The line, however, is made up of larger aircraft, with 140 to 170 seats.
The executive prefers not to dwell on comments about , but evaluates movements in the Brazilian market — which involves Latam’s exit from Chapter 11, similar to judicial recovery in the United States, and the entry of Gol () with the same request — “he’s doing the three strongest aerials, which is positive for us.”
The president’s assessment is that the A220 standard, which holds 100 to 120 passengers in its smallest version, has space to complement fleets in an intermediate space between regional planes and single-aisle aircraft with greater capacity.
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For now, however, no deal has been closed by the main Brazilian operators, such as Latam, Gol and Azul (). Recently, Latam CEO Jerome Cardier, although Airbus’s option is not alone.
The Brazilian Embraer () is one of Airbus’ main competitors in the segment, with its E2 family of jets. “The smaller fleet could come from Embraer, it could come from Airbus. But there is no confirmation of any number of aircraft. What exists is a company committed to maintaining growth”, said Cardier in August 2024.
Expansion in Latin America
Both companies faced a slower year in orders for their medium-haul jet versions. Barreira, however, remains optimistic about the increase in air traffic in Latin America over the next few years. Projections are that this volume will double in 10 years and that the number of trips per capita will increase from the current 0.4 to 1 knots in the next 20 years.
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“This smaller aircraft has been extremely successful in more mature markets, such as the United States, Canada and Europe, but we see the expansion going to less mature markets such as Latin America”, says Barreira. The European company’s expectation is to manufacture 14 A220 aircraft per month by 2026.
From 2023 to 2024, however, the balance between orders and cancellations for the A220 family was negative for 9 aircraft. In 2023, it was positive at 134. The number of deliveries increased, from 68 to 75. In total, Airbus delivered 766 planes and received 878 orders last year.
