Transcript
A (0:02)
I'm Jon Ostrower, editor in chief of the Air Current.
B (0:04)
I'm Brian Summers and I write the Airline Observer.
C (0:06)
And I'm Brett Snyder, author of Cranky Flyer. You're listening to the Air show, the podcast where we talk about what goes on in the business of the sky. But before we do that this week, I need to issue a correction from last week. I made the mistake of taking President Trump at his word that he was going to save 14,000 jobs by rescuing Spirit. And I heard from many of you saying, where did you get that number? Obviously correct. He later bumped that to 18,000 when he was talking about it, but the truth is less than half that number. According to federal data, Spirit employed 8,713 people at the end of February. And I'm just going to leave it there so I don't lose my mind again as I did last week. So, John, welcome back, gentlemen.
A (0:52)
Thank you for covering for me last week. No vacation or fun reporting trip here, just a spontaneous water feature spreading in my basement bathroom. I'm back. And thankfully, so is my ceiling. Did I miss anything? Has anything been unexpectedly chaotic unfolding in our beloved industry over the last seven days?
B (1:11)
No, I don't think so, John. At least not as far as I could tell.
C (1:15)
It's cool.
A (1:15)
Yeah, pretty, pretty quiet. So this week we're gonna take a mental break and we're gonna serve you a cool salve for the existentially crispy industry. We're going to spend an entire episode talking about an airplane that doesn't use yet exist.
C (1:30)
Oh, God, please don't tell me we're talking about boom again.
A (1:34)
No, Brett, we're going to be at the other end of the airplanes that fly higher, faster, and farther. We're going to be looking at the faster, better, cheaper end of the spectrum. The Airbus A220 stretch, or the A220 500 as it's sometimes been called.
B (1:50)
Ah, yes, John, we've teased this episode for a long time. Every time I go to a conference, people say, when is John finally going to do the episode? I'm so glad that we're finally here. But how long have we been talking about this airplane?
A (2:05)
Too long. I mean, like, like, literally. I think we've been talking about this since the aughts. It's been that long. This is a paper airplane that has stalked this industry since the C series was launched by Bombardier in 2008. But look, I think it really looks like Airbus is getting closer to finally launching it and bringing this thing to reality during My WSJ days. I remember an interview in 2015 with Fred Cromer. Yes, that Fred Cromer of Spirit Airlines fame. When he was president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, he teased the idea of a third member of the C series family. It was that mythical CS500. But look, even a whisper about this airplane at the time sent a chill through Boeing and Airbus. It was seen as a really genuine threat. Like its 180 seat airplane, regardless of its capability, was one less Airbus or Boeing that would be sold at the heart of of their market. And just by comparison, the A220 300 is actually finally on its way to 160 seats with a high density arrangement that Airbus is currently working on.
