Airbus has taken over and renamed the Canadian jet that Boeing tried to keep out of the US

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Airbus has taken over and renamed the Canadian jet that Boeing tried to keep out of the US

Airbus A220 300 new member of the airbus Single aisle Family

Airbus

The new Airbus A220.

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  • The Bombardier C Series has officially been renamed the Airbus A220.
  • Airbus completed a deal, earlier this month, to acquire 50.1% of the C Series program with Bombardier and the Quebec government remaining minority shareholders.
  • The CS100 is now the A220-100 while the CS300 has been renamed the A220-300.

The Bombardier C Series is no more.

On Tuesday, the Canadian airliner was officially rechristened the Airbus A220 in a renaming ceremony at the European airplane maker's headquarters in Toulouse, France.

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"Everyone at Airbus has been looking forward to this historic moment," the president of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Guillaume Faury said in a statement. "Today, we are thrilled to welcome the A220 to the Airbus family and are honored to see it wearing its new Airbus colors for the first time."

Faury also praised the hard work put in by the men and women of Quebec-based Bombardier to bring the 100 to 150-seat A220 to market.

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Bombardier C Series 100

Bombardier

The A220 will continue to be available in two variants. The CS100 now becomes the A220-100 while the larger CS300 is now the A220-300.

This is the second time the aircraft has been renamed. Before the CS100 and CS300 designation, the planes were known as the CS110 and the CS130.

Earlier this month, Airbus completed a deal to acquire 50.1% of the financially-challenged C Series program with Bombardier and the Quebec government remaining minority shareholders. Airbus made no up-front financial investment in the C Series but will provide its procurement, marketing, sales, and customer-support expertise. In addition, Airbus also indicated that C Series/A220 production would also take place at its plant in Mobile, Alabama.

At the time of the deal's announcement last October, Bombardier was mired in the middle of a trade dispute with Boeing and under threat from a proposed 299.45% tariff levied upon it by the US Commerce Department. The dispute came about when Boeing alleged that its business was hurt by the low prices Delta received in its 2016 order for 75 C Series jets. According to Boeing, these prices were only possible with the assistance of Canadian Government subsidies.

Airbus Bombardier C Series Partnership 007

Airbus

In January, the US International Trade Commission struck the down the proposed tariffs, ending the dispute.

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The A220 moniker allows Airbus to market the C Series with a name that's in line with the rest of its lineup. The renaming of an airliner is far from a common occurrence, but it is something that has happened before. Following Boeing's 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas, MD-95 became the Boeing 717-200.

The Airbus A220/C Series is currently in operation with Swiss, Air Baltic, and Korean Air.

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