MONTREAL—After a year marked by the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max and disrupted flight schedules, Air Canada unveiled some good news for its fleet Wednesday in the form of a gleaming new jet, Canadian designed and built.

Air Canada took the wraps off its first Airbus A220-300, formerly known as the Bombardier C-series, at an event that marked the culmination of the airline’s pivotal 2016 order for 45 of the new jet, with the possibility to buy 30 more.

Without it, Bombardier’s design may never have gotten off the ground.

“As the first North American carrier to place a firm order, we helped put the program on a solid footing, encouraging other global carriers to have confidence in placing orders,” Calin Rovinescu, Air Canada’s president and chief executive officer told guests gathered in an aircraft hangar.

“We feel we played an important role in keeping Canada on the leading role in the aerospace industry,” Rovinescu said.

Rovinescu said the order, with a list price of $3.8 billion (U.S.), makes Air Canada the second North American carrier to fly the A220, after Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc.

Air Canada’s order for the aircraft ended a sales drought that had put Bombardier’s program in doubt. But it wasn’t completely out of the woods: a year later, European aerospace giant Airbus took a majority stake in the project, resulting in the name change.

Rovinescu painted the twin-engine, single-aisle jet as a game-changer, saying Bombardier set out to disrupt the market with the new design.

“Each new jetliner brings new capabilities and creates new opportunities for Air Canada. The A220 especially so,” Rovinescu said.

Craig Landry, the airline’s executive vice-president, operations, says the size of the A220 is “unique.” With 137 seats — 12 in business and 125 economy class — it fills a niche between regional jets and smaller narrow-body aircraft, he said. And it is able to fly 5,000 kilometres, enough range to cover North America. “The combination of those two things … will allow us to open up a lot of new destinations,” he said in an interview.

The first revenue flight is scheduled for Thursday, flying Montreal to Calgary. Air Canada will then use the aircraft to open new routes, connecting Montreal and Seattle and Toronto and San Jose, Calif., starting in May. Other new routes to the U.S. are expected as more A220s are delivered.

“You’ll see a lot of new route announcements as a result of this,” he said.

Landry said the airline’s contingency planning has filled the “vast majority” of flights disrupted by the grounding of the Boeing Max and that the A220 won’t be pressed into service on those routes.

“Our approach for this aircraft is that it’s really a separate market, it’s unrelated,” he said.

And the airline is betting that the plane is a hit with passengers. Capt. Patrick Tompkins, the airline’s A220 chief pilot, sang its praises, saying the clean-sheet design enabled engineers to take advantage of the latest in aircraft technology, from the design of its efficient wing, its engines with lower fuel burns and an advanced cockpit.

The aircraft burns up to 20 per cent less fuel per seat than older aircraft, meaning fewer emissions. It’s quieter, for both passengers and airport neighbours.

In the cabin, the windows are bigger, the overhead bins are larger with enough room so that every passenger can bring a roller bag onboard, Landry said.

Certainly, Air Canada is betting that the A220 has a more successful launch than the Boeing 737 Max, the last new aircraft type to join the airline’s fleet.

The Max was grounded last March after two fatal accidents just five months apart, forcing Air Canada to park its 24 aircraft. The disruption is made worse by the uncertainty over just when Transport Canada and other regulators will clear the aircraft to resume flights.

Boeing is working to address the design flaws and revamp pilot training but the plane’s return to service remains in limbo. “The timetable? It’s a little bit out of our hands,” Landry said.

“It’s a complicated environment for sure, but it is largely in the hands of the regulators,” he said. “That process is ongoing and we’re working very closely with it but we’ll just have to see how that unfolds.”

“The regulators will be the first primary deciders when they’re ready to put that aircraft back into the air,” he said.

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He acknowledged that nervous passengers may need some reassurance about the safety of the Boeing 737 Max once Transport Canada and other regulators clear it to resume commercial service.

“I’m sure customers will have some questions. But at the end of the day, when that aircraft goes back in the air, it will be as a result of a series of global regulators that will have certified it for safety as well as the airlines.” he said.

“The issue of confidence will be one we address but it will never go in the air until all of the regulators and the airlines have signed off on it,” Landry said.

with a file from The Canadian Press

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