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Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, momentum seemed to be gathering for the launch of a larger Airbus A220-500. Is that still likely?

Aviation Week Executive Editor, Commercial Aviation, Jens Flottau responds: 

Yes, Airbus will likely further stretch the A220 (formerly the Bombardier C Series). But when that will happen is another question. At the start of 2020, it appeared the proposed -500 would be launched within 2-3 years, given that the A220 program was expected to become profitable at relatively high production rates by 2025. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has stalled most spending on aircraft development—with the exception of the A321XLR. Airbus will now almost certainly delay any launch of the -500 by several years. Besides conserving cash, such a slip might also buy time for the company to introduce new technologies to the A220 that it has been developing for future aircraft.

From a strategic point of view, an A220-500 would give Airbus a competitive aircraft family at the lower end of the narrowbody market, reaching into Boeing 737-8 territory. That would allow Airbus to begin a clean-sheet successor to the A320 family at 180 seats or higher, capitalizing on growing demand for bigger narrowbodies. By contrast, Boeing would have to cover the entire narrowbody segment with just one family, the 737 MAX, now that it has scuttled a proposed acquisition of Embraer Commercial that would have added the smaller E2 family to its lineup.