The first Airbus A220 of Air France, registered as C-FPBQ, took off for testing from the final assembly line at Mirabel airport, in Quebec, Canada, on August 26, 2021.
“The test flight, called “production flight”, completes the assembly steps and represents an important milestone before the delivery process of the Airbus A22,” the carrier said in a statement. The next stage before delivery will be the Customer Acceptance Flight.
The airliner sports Air France’s contemporary colors but also features the winged seahorse, the airline’s historical symbol, at the front of the fuselage and on the engine nacelles.
An order for 60 A220 was placed by Air France in December 2019. The first aircraft should be delivered to the French national carrier by the end of September 2021.
The new fleet is destined to replace the airline’s A318s and A319s on the short and medium-haul network. According to the carrier, the Airbus A220 will use 20% less fuel than its predecessors thanks to the use of lighter composite materials.