MONTREAL, Canada - Air Austral, France's Reunion Island-based airline, has signed a firm order for three A220 aircraft. With this order Air Austral becomes the first A220 customer based in the Indian Ocean region. Benefitting from a 20 percent reduction in fuel burn and CO2 emissions, the A220s will enable Air Austral to reduce its costs and carbon footprint on international routes in the region.
"Air Austral has chosen the A220-300 as part of the renewal of its medium and short haul fleet. These new-generation aircraft will join the airline from the end of 2020 with the aim of harmonizing part of its fleet and strengthening its operations," said Marie-Joseph Malé, Chief Executive Officer of Air Austral. "The 132-seat capacity module, which is more flexible, will allow us to increase our frequencies while offering more comfort to our customers and crews."
The A220 brings together state-of-the-art aerodynamics, advanced materials and Pratt & Whitney’s latest-generation PW1500G geared turbofan engines to offer at least a 20% lower fuel burn per seat compared to previous generation aircraft, along with significantly lower emissions and a reduced noise footprint. The A220 offers the performance of larger single-aisle aircraft.
The A220 had an order book of over 500 aircraft at the end of September 2019.