Looking Back At 2019: Commercial Aviation

Delta Air Lines in February became the first carrier in the Americas to debut the Airbus A220. Delta has ordered 45 A220-100s and 50 A220-300s. The A220 manufacturing line in Mobile, Alabama, went live in early August. The first aircraft, for Delta, will roll off the line in the third quarter of 2020.

Airbus announced in February it is terminating the A380 program, after Emirates decided to only take 14 more aircraft instead of the 53 it had on firm order. As a result of this decision Airbus had no substantial A380 backlog and no basis to sustain production. Deliveries will end in 2021 after 251 aircraft.

Boeing quietly rolled out the prototype 777-9 on March 13. After a durability issue was discovered on the General Electric GE9X engine at the start of June, the first flight was postponed to early 2020. Now overcome, the engine problem has delayed first deliveries of the 777-9 by a year to early 2021.

In March 2019, aviation authorities around the world grounded the Boeing 737 MAX after two new aircraft crashed within five months, killing all 346 people on board. After Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed on March 10, the Civil Aviation Administration of China was the first regulator to ground the MAX, citing similarities with the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 on Oct. 29, 2018. Other aviation authorities followed.

Certification of the E195-E2, the largest commercial airliner ever made by Embraer, was awarded simultaneously on April 16 by Brazilian, European and U.S. regulators. Brazil’s Azul Airlines took delivery of the first of the 146-seat aircraft in September.

Airbus launched the long-expected A321XLR on the opening day of the Paris Air Show in June, on the back of several launch orders for the long-range narrowbody. Deliveries begin in 2023. In December, United Airlines ordered 50 A321XLRs to replace Boeing 757s and expand transatlantic services,

Mitsubishi Aircraft in June rebranded the MRJ as the SpaceJet and introduced a redesigned MRJ70 called the SpaceJet M100. The M100 fuselage is extended to 113.2 ft. to accommodate 76 passengers in three classes, but the span is reduced and the takeoff weight is restricted to 86,000 lb. so the aircraft is scope-clause compliant.

Dash 8

The return of some 150,000 customers of failed leisure operator Thomas Cook Airlines was completed on Oct. 9, with the UK Civil Aviation Authority declaring it the country’s largest peacetime repatriation effort—almost 800 flights operated by around 140 aircraft from European and North American airlines.

Italian manufacturer Tecnam delivered the first two of up to 100 nine-passenger P402C piston twins.

In October, EASA certified the Airbus BelugaXL, the latest generation of custom-built freighters used by the European manufacturer to transport major components between its factories. Based on the A330-200 freighter, the BelugaXL provides 30% more transport capacity than its BelugaST predecessor.