Hey everyone,
I've been intruiged about Delta's A220s for a while now but I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems. If anyone knows whether or not the A220 has been a success yet in Delta's fleet, or what issues they've encountered, please comment below!

I've noticed that a couple of the flights have been returning to the gate before takeoff, often just after lining up for departure. Does anyone know what could be causing these problems?

I remember seeing a Twitter post a while back from someone saying that N102DU did exactly the above because of "air conditioning issues," and then the IFE and outlets weren't functioning once they departed the gate for the second time.

Is anyone able to shed some light on this?

I've been keeping track of the flights as accurately as I can, I'll attach the link below to the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egs ... ekOB8-jGmo

Jgsushi wrote:

[...]I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems.[...]

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

WayexTDI wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

[...]I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems.[...]

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

For what it's worth, the first few DL A220's had been flying for a couple months before EIS.

WayexTDI wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

[...]I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems.[...]

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

That's a good point, thank you. I agree that it's unlikely to be anything serious, since other airlines have been operating them for a while.

On a different note, I remember that on the inaugural from LGA to BOS, after we got off in Boston, a guy from Pratt and Whitney asked me how the engines sounded, and then he told me there were still some kinks to iron out with the sound. The crew also did a run up and it sounded horrible; the engines were out of sync just enough that you could hear that noise you get when two frequencies that are close to one another interfere with each other. Could it be an issue only pertaining to a certain "batch" of engines like the issues on the Trent 1000 where the kinks only affected some engines and not others?

DiamondFlyer wrote:

WayexTDI wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

[...]I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems.[...]

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

For what it's worth, the first few DL A220's had been flying for a couple months before EIS.

Yeah that is true...
I guess we'll see how it progresses as N105DU and onward get delivered and sent into service a little quicker than N101DU-N104DU

Jgsushi wrote:

I've been keeping track of the flights as accurately as I can, I'll attach the link below to the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egs ... ekOB8-jGmo

Awesome. That spreadsheet is super helpful, as it gives you an idea of where delays are happening because of weather and volume, and where they are happening because of teething problems. LGA is tough airport to launch a new aircraft from, especially in a season that has had a late, cold, windy, snowy winter. On the other hand, they have kept slack in the A220 fleet by layering in service slowly relative to the number of deliveries. Reliability on LGA-BOS and LGA-DFW has not been particularly good, but nothing has been good out of LGA on any fleet or carrier. This is the tough part of introducing an aircraft that allows you to differentiate yourself for customer experience - as the overall experience is not great due to difficult operating conditions.

I think the biggest story, though, is that the delivery pace is on target. 8107 has already been delivered, and I believe 8108-8110 have all flown at least once in Mirabel. That means they should hit all targets for new A220 routes that have already been announced.

TW870 wrote:

8107 has already been delivered, and I believe 8108-8110 have all flown at least once in Mirabel. That means they should hit all targets for new A220 routes that have already been announced.

Only 8109 has flown out of 8108-8110

TW870 wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

I've been keeping track of the flights as accurately as I can, I'll attach the link below to the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egs ... ekOB8-jGmo

Awesome. That spreadsheet is super helpful, as it gives you an idea of where delays are happening because of weather and volume, and where they are happening because of teething problems. LGA is tough airport to launch a new aircraft from, especially in a season that has had a late, cold, windy, snowy winter. On the other hand, they have kept slack in the A220 fleet by layering in service slowly relative to the number of deliveries. Reliability on LGA-BOS and LGA-DFW has not been particularly good, but nothing has been good out of LGA on any fleet or carrier. This is the tough part of introducing an aircraft that allows you to difyourself for customer experience - as the overall experience is not great due to difficult operating conditions.

I think the biggest story, though, is that the delivery pace is on target. 8107 has already been delivered, and I believe 8108-8110 have all flown at least once in Mirabel. That means they should hit all targets for new A220 routes that have already been announced.

Wow it's like you've been reading my mind, that's exactly why I started keeping track. LGA is very behind with on time performance, especially with the winter weather this past week. I've noticed the extra aircraft at ATL that have been delivered, but I've also noticed they often keep an extra at LGA or BOS as well, just in case, which I think is very smart.

Jgsushi wrote:

I remember seeing a Twitter post a while back from someone saying that N102DU did exactly the above because of "air conditioning issues," and then the IFE and outlets weren't functioning once they departed the gate for the second time.

Is anyone able to shed some light on this?

Funny you should mention N102DU, I'm on that flight today, LGA-DFW, and its delayed leaving BOS for whatever reason, which ultimately is deaying my flight!

Jgsushi wrote:

I've been keeping track of the flights as accurately as I can, I'll attach the link below to the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egs ... ekOB8-jGmo

Thanks for making this and keeping it up to date, very informative and insightful

jumbojet wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

I remember seeing a Twitter post a while back from someone saying that N102DU did exactly the above because of "air conditioning issues," and then the IFE and outlets weren't functioning once they departed the gate for the second time.

Is anyone able to shed some light on this?

Funny you should mention N102DU, I'm on that flight today, LGA-DFW, and its delayed leaving BOS for whatever reason, which ultimately is deaying my flight!

Have fun!! She's a sleek bird. Let us know if you can find any info from the pilots or something!

thewizbizman wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

I've been keeping track of the flights as accurately as I can, I'll attach the link below to the Google doc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Egs ... ekOB8-jGmo

Thanks for making this and keeping it up to date, very informative and insightful

Thanks for the kind words! It works for now but soon when Delta has dozens in service I'm not going to be able to keep up. We'll see how it goes.

I saw N102DU in DTW yesterday, it was operating DL 2665 DTW-DFW yesterday afternoon. It departed the gate A3 on-time at 12:10pm and it was being de-iced on the 4R pad next to my flight yesterday.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

I saw N102DU in DTW yesterday, it was operating DL 2665 DTW-DFW yesterday afternoon. It departed the gate A3 on-time at 12:10pm and it was being de-iced on the 4R pad next to my flight yesterday.

I was looking up flights to MCI in May and it looks like the A220 will take a few LGA-DTW rotations as well.

There a lot of little things that Line Mechanics (and to some extent pilots, flight attendants and rampers) do that is not documented or poorly documented. Its called "learning a new airplane." I have no doubt that Delta is going through that right now. But after all the pilot trainers and verification flights, and the general experience level among the employee groups that Delta has from operating a very diverse fleet, the EIS seems to be going pretty well. Two years of operating experience that the Bombardier/Airbus customer support folks are bringing from airBaltic and Swiss doesn't hurt either.

I keep wondering how long the engines will run on the wing.

You need to remember that DL has a lot of experience in the past few years and on-boarding new fleet types.
Thus, accumulated a whole lot of lessons learned from past launches. Not to mention the whole integration for the DL-NW fleets to a single operating certificate.
This isn't like an airlines that hasn't accepted a new fleet type in 15 years.

In this decade alone you have:

717
739ER
321
350
220/CS1

Just judging by the scheduling and utilization rate, Delta has taken a very conservative approach to onboarding both the A350 and A220 (which are the only two truly all-new types it's acquired since the merger). Airlines get in trouble when they figure that they can fully utilize their new toys after a bare minimum amount of time needed to do required crew and maintenance training. Just think of the disaster that was Norwegian with its initial 788 operation.

Jgsushi wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

I remember seeing a Twitter post a while back from someone saying that N102DU did exactly the above because of "air conditioning issues," and then the IFE and outlets weren't functioning once they departed the gate for the second time.

Is anyone able to shed some light on this?

Funny you should mention N102DU, I'm on that flight today, LGA-DFW, and its delayed leaving BOS for whatever reason, which ultimately is deaying my flight!

Have fun!! She's a sleek bird. Let us know if you can find any info from the pilots or something!

Amazing, absolutely amazing plane. I will go out of my way to fly the A220 in the future. There's to many good things to say about it. The lavs, LARGE and ROOMY. Even the ones in coach. I flew F but went back to the Y lavs, tons of room and love the lav with a view! The IFE screens are also amazing. I cant say enough about the A220. Very sleek indeed.

I dont know why it was delayed, I didnt ask. It was about 30 minutes late into LGA but we landed on-time at DFW.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

You need to remember that DL has a lot of experience in the past few years and on-boarding new fleet types.
Thus, accumulated a whole lot of lessons learned from past launches. Not to mention the whole integration for the DL-NW fleets to a single operating certificate.
This isn't like an airlines that hasn't accepted a new fleet type in 15 years.

In this decade alone you have:

717
739ER
321
350
220/CS1

Not to downplay the level of experience DL has with varied fleet, but the 717, 739ER & A321 were not exactly unknown fleet; they were iteration/variants of existing fleet (respectively, DC9/MD88/MD90, 73G/738 & A319/320) that had been within DL (or NW) for years already. Of course they had specific systems/components, but the airframe itself was already known.
A350 & A220 were indeed completely new fleet.

evank516 wrote:

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

I saw N102DU in DTW yesterday, it was operating DL 2665 DTW-DFW yesterday afternoon. It departed the gate A3 on-time at 12:10pm and it was being de-iced on the 4R pad next to my flight yesterday.

I was looking up flights to MCI in May and it looks like the A220 will take a few LGA-DTW rotations as well.

Thanks for that insight, that actually helps! I noticed yesterday that N101DU flew from BOS to DTW and back, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be a regular thing or not. Could it be possible that they were trying to keep the A220s away from the weekend snowstorms in the Northeast in order to improve the on time performance of the A220 fleet?

On March 2nd, N102DU flew LGA-DTW, but I haven't noticed anything regular on that route either so far. N103DU went the opposite direction on the same day, DTW-LGA.

Has anyone heard of regular service on either of those routes?

SteelChair wrote:

There a lot of little things that Line Mechanics (and to some extent pilots, flight attendants and rampers) do that is not documented or poorly documented. Its called "learning a new airplane." I have no doubt that Delta is going through that right now. But after all the pilot trainers and verification flights, and the general experience level among the employee groups that Delta has from operating a very diverse fleet, the EIS seems to be going pretty well. Two years of operating experience that the Bombardier/Airbus customer support folks are bringing from airBaltic and Swiss doesn't hurt either.

I keep wondering how long the engines will run on the wing.

Yeah, that's a good point that Delta's fleet diversity is a huge asset for them at the moment.

seabosdca wrote:

Just judging by the scheduling and utilization rate, Delta has taken a very conservative approach to onboarding both the A350 and A220 (which are the only two truly all-new types it's acquired since the merger). Airlines get in trouble when they figure that they can fully utilize their new toys after a bare minimum amount of time needed to do required crew and maintenance training. Just think of the disaster that was Norwegian with its initial 788 operation.

And Norwegian isn't looking so good right now as a result!

jumbojet wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

Funny you should mention N102DU, I'm on that flight today, LGA-DFW, and its delayed leaving BOS for whatever reason, which ultimately is deaying my flight!

Have fun!! She's a sleek bird. Let us know if you can find any info from the pilots or something!

Amazing, absolutely amazing plane. I will go out of my way to fly the A220 in the future. There's to many good things to say about it. The lavs, LARGE and ROOMY. Even the ones in coach. I flew F but went back to the Y lavs, tons of room and love the lav with a view! The IFE screens are also amazing. I cant say enough about the A220. Very sleek indeed.

I dont know why it was delayed, I didnt ask. It was about 30 minutes late into LGA but we landed on-time at DFW.

Yeah the IFE is spectacular for us enthusiasts. There's a diagram of the aircraft that you can rotate and it shows the pitch and roll angles as well as altitude and heading. I haven't been able to find anything comparable in Delta's fleet so far.

Jgsushi wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

Have fun!! She's a sleek bird. Let us know if you can find any info from the pilots or something!

Amazing, absolutely amazing plane. I will go out of my way to fly the A220 in the future. There's to many good things to say about it. The lavs, LARGE and ROOMY. Even the ones in coach. I flew F but went back to the Y lavs, tons of room and love the lav with a view! The IFE screens are also amazing. I cant say enough about the A220. Very sleek indeed.

I dont know why it was delayed, I didnt ask. It was about 30 minutes late into LGA but we landed on-time at DFW.

Yeah the IFE is spectacular for us enthusiasts. There's a diagram of the aircraft that you can rotate and it shows the pitch and roll angles as well as altitude and heading. I haven't been able to find anything comparable in Delta's fleet so far.

Its very cool, I saw that to. I would rather have that than ch. 9 on United. I would describe it as a HUD positioned over the flight mapper. Love that it gives the speed and altitude readings just like you were in the flightdeck, and the dials move in real time to.

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about flying DL's CS1 next month on DFW-SLC and DTW-DFW, the AA 788 I'm catching on DFW-ORD-DFW or the A20N I flew on NK on LAS-DFW last month. I'm inclined to lean towards the CS1 because I've never flown DL (and, the luster of the 788 might have been dampened by my SAT-DFW flight on an AA Oasis 738).

ctrabs0114 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about flying DL's CS1 next month on DFW-SLC and DTW-DFW, the AA 788 I'm catching on DFW-ORD-DFW or the A20N I flew on NK on LAS-DFW last month. I'm inclined to lean towards the CS1 because I've never flown DL (and, the luster of the 788 might have been dampened by my SAT-DFW flight on an AA Oasis 738).

CS1 is amazing, they really hit a grand slam. There are so many things to love about it. Took no time at all to board because it really doesnt seat that many people so boarding goes really quickly. The coach lav with the window is on the left side of the plane btw.

ctrabs0114 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about flying DL's CS1 next month on DFW-SLC and DTW-DFW, the AA 788 I'm catching on DFW-ORD-DFW or the A20N I flew on NK on LAS-DFW last month. I'm inclined to lean towards the CS1 because I've never flown DL (and, the luster of the 788 might have been dampened by my SAT-DFW flight on an AA Oasis 738).

Holy crap that's quite a lineup of flights! Enjoy!

Jgsushi wrote:

ctrabs0114 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm more excited about flying DL's CS1 next month on DFW-SLC and DTW-DFW, the AA 788 I'm catching on DFW-ORD-DFW or the A20N I flew on NK on LAS-DFW last month. I'm inclined to lean towards the CS1 because I've never flown DL (and, the luster of the 788 might have been dampened by my SAT-DFW flight on an AA Oasis 738).

Holy crap that's quite a lineup of flights! Enjoy!

It's even more noteworthy because I've mostly flown WN over the past few years. It's not that I'm bailing on WN, but the timing for the DL flights (which are part of a DFW-SEA r/t - the other two legs, in and out of SEA, are on 737s) worked out better for my plans in this case (especially the SEA-DTW red eye to connect with my flight back to DFW).

Jgsushi wrote:

seabosdca wrote:

Just judging by the scheduling and utilization rate, Delta has taken a very conservative approach to onboarding both the A350 and A220 (which are the only two truly all-new types it's acquired since the merger). Airlines get in trouble when they figure that they can fully utilize their new toys after a bare minimum amount of time needed to do required crew and maintenance training. Just think of the disaster that was Norwegian with its initial 788 operation.

And Norwegian isn't looking so good right now as a result!

In Norwegian's defense, 100% of maintenance was supposed to be taken care of by gold care. It is Boeing who over promised and didn't deliver.

If Bombardier had promised to take all responsibility for maintenance, promised a high out the gate dispatch reliability, then some launch customer would have had issues.

DL will force Pratt/Airbus/Bombardier to fix the issues. They know how to write a contract. But they are also easing into service. I look forward to reading A220 dispatch reliability, in two years.

Lightsaber

lightsaber wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

seabosdca wrote:

Just judging by the scheduling and utilization rate, Delta has taken a very conservative approach to onboarding both the A350 and A220 (which are the only two truly all-new types it's acquired since the merger). Airlines get in trouble when they figure that they can fully utilize their new toys after a bare minimum amount of time needed to do required crew and maintenance training. Just think of the disaster that was Norwegian with its initial 788 operation.

And Norwegian isn't looking so good right now as a result!

In Norwegian's defense, 100% of maintenance was supposed to be taken care of by gold care. It is Boeing who over promised and didn't deliver.

If Bombardier had promised to take all responsibility for maintenance, promised a high out the gate dispatch reliability, then some launch customer would have had issues.

Lightsaber

With regard to safety, the enduring lesson of Valujet is that an airline can contract out the work but not the responsibility. At least in the USA.

With regard to customer service, the customer also blames the airline. "The manufacturer didn't come through," won't mollify the business person who missed their meeting or the group of 27 that missed their Rhein River cruise.

Just sayin'

I've started working on a spreadsheet to replace the Google doc above, so it's easier to visualize. I'll attach the link below. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-KsquxBomaj9EjuVqqLAw87jbHzpJpIXj0x5TsrwnqY

Jgsushi wrote:

I've started working on a spreadsheet to replace the Google doc above, so it's easier to visualize. I'll attach the link below. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-KsquxBomaj9EjuVqqLAw87jbHzpJpIXj0x5TsrwnqY

That spreadsheet is even better because it is simpler to differentiate the maintenance delays from the general operation. Overall, you can see how terrible the northeast (and midwest) have been weather wise. I am MSP based and it was our snowiest February in history. Tough environment for introducing a new type, but as others have said, the conservative approach has prevented it from being worse.

TW870 wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

I've started working on a spreadsheet to replace the Google doc above, so it's easier to visualize. I'll attach the link below. Let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-KsquxBomaj9EjuVqqLAw87jbHzpJpIXj0x5TsrwnqY

That spreadsheet is even better because it is simpler to differentiate the maintenance delays from the general operation. Overall, you can see how terrible the northeast (and midwest) have been weather wise. I am MSP based and it was our snowiest February in history. Tough environment for introducing a new type, but as others have said, the conservative approach has prevented it from being worse.

Yeah. And it doesn't help that the bad weather often comes to both LGA and BOS on the same day, or at least within the same two days, so whatever delays occur, the weather delays don't resolve for the rest of the day.

I was on N103DU today. Pilot came out to the boarding area and announced that the lavs (all 3) wouldn't be functional until 16,000 feet due to some kind of a pressure issue with all the toilets. Not a big deal I guess, just a mild inconvenience.

That's better than when my last E75 flights the lav system malfunctioned 2 hours into the 3 hour flight from DTW-DFW and everyone was told to "hold it" for the last hour.

jumbojet wrote:

I was on N103DU today. Pilot came out to the boarding area and announced that the lavs (all 3) wouldn't be functional until 16,000 feet due to some kind of a pressure issue with all the toilets. Not a big deal I guess, just a mild inconvenience.

Most likely the vacuum generator wasn't functioning. It creates the level of vacuum needed for the system to properly function when the aircraft is below 16,000 ft.
As you said, not a big deal.

Hmm, Interesting, thanks for sharing! I'll add it to the docs

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

That's better than when my last E75 flights the lav system malfunctioned 2 hours into the 3 hour flight from DTW-DFW and everyone was told to "hold it" for the last hour.

Oof you should've sued...

WayexTDI wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

I was on N103DU today. Pilot came out to the boarding area and announced that the lavs (all 3) wouldn't be functional until 16,000 feet due to some kind of a pressure issue with all the toilets. Not a big deal I guess, just a mild inconvenience.

Most likely the vacuum generator wasn't functioning. It creates the level of vacuum needed for the system to properly function when the aircraft is below 16,000 ft.
As you said, not a big deal.

Aha, there is the cause. Does that system affect anything other than the lavatories?

Also guys, I saw that N106DU flew to Asheville (AVL) again today. I found online that Delta is planning on introducing the A220 between Asheville and Detroit in June. Looks like the articles were written on February 20th, so it's possible you guys are already aware of this.

Jgsushi wrote:

Also guys, I saw that N106DU flew to Asheville (AVL) again today. I found online that Delta is planning on introducing the A220 between Asheville and Detroit in June. Looks like the articles were written on February 20th, so it's possible you guys are already aware of this.

DTW-AVL is a Saturday-only, summer seasonal flight to be operated with a Skywest CRJ-200

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

Also guys, I saw that N106DU flew to Asheville (AVL) again today. I found online that Delta is planning on introducing the A220 between Asheville and Detroit in June. Looks like the articles were written on February 20th, so it's possible you guys are already aware of this.

DTW-AVL is a Saturday-only, summer seasonal flight to be operated with a Skywest CRJ-200

Lmao that'll teach me not to trust USA today

[*] Absolutly no issues....running smmmmmoooooothly

Jgsushi wrote:

WayexTDI wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

[...]I'm frustrated by the lack of information on the A220 teething problems.[...]

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

That's a good point, thank you. I agree that it's unlikely to be anything serious, since other airlines have been operating them for a while.

On a different note, I remember that on the inaugural from LGA to BOS, after we got off in Boston, a guy from Pratt and Whitney asked me how the engines sounded, and then he told me there were still some kinks to iron out with the sound. The crew also did a run up and it sounded horrible; the engines were out of sync just enough that you could hear that noise you get when two frequencies that are close to one another interfere with each other. Could it be an issue only pertaining to a certain "batch" of engines like the issues on the Trent 1000 where the kinks only affected some engines and not others?

See this link from 3 years ago. It's the GTF spool up that your hearing.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1342525&p=19073205&hilit=spool+up#p19073205

WayexTDI wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

I was on N103DU today. Pilot came out to the boarding area and announced that the lavs (all 3) wouldn't be functional until 16,000 feet due to some kind of a pressure issue with all the toilets. Not a big deal I guess, just a mild inconvenience.

Most likely the vacuum generator wasn't functioning. It creates the level of vacuum needed for the system to properly function when the aircraft is below 16,000 ft.
As you said, not a big deal.

Yes, thats exactly what it was, a vacuum issue, not a pressure issue. Thanks for the correction.

A little but off-topic (but no more than the previous posts):

Do we have any intel about the performance of the small Korean Air A220-300 fleet? The language barrier doesn't let escape a lot of information.

Jgsushi wrote:

WayexTDI wrote:

jumbojet wrote:

I was on N103DU today. Pilot came out to the boarding area and announced that the lavs (all 3) wouldn't be functional until 16,000 feet due to some kind of a pressure issue with all the toilets. Not a big deal I guess, just a mild inconvenience.

Most likely the vacuum generator wasn't functioning. It creates the level of vacuum needed for the system to properly function when the aircraft is below 16,000 ft.
As you said, not a big deal.

Aha, there is the cause. Does that system affect anything other than the lavatories?

The vacuum system drives/impacts the toilets (the vacuum ones, not the recirculating obviously) and Galley Waste Disposal Units (primarily installed on wide-bodies). I believe the sinks (galley and toilet) also dump into the same system, not entirely sure to be honest.

Boeingphan wrote:

Jgsushi wrote:

WayexTDI wrote:

Could it be simply because there are not any real issues yet for DL A220's?
The A220 has had 18 months in service before DL sent them out. The teething issues were mostly ironed out by then, and the DL frames are still young to develop issues on their own (only 1 month in service).

Wait a few months and a few more frames for the real reliability at DL to start showing up and be relevant.

That's a good point, thank you. I agree that it's unlikely to be anything serious, since other airlines have been operating them for a while.

On a different note, I remember that on the inaugural from LGA to BOS, after we got off in Boston, a guy from Pratt and Whitney asked me how the engines sounded, and then he told me there were still some kinks to iron out with the sound. The crew also did a run up and it sounded horrible; the engines were out of sync just enough that you could hear that noise you get when two frequencies that are close to one another interfere with each other. Could it be an issue only pertaining to a certain "batch" of engines like the issues on the Trent 1000 where the kinks only affected some engines and not others?

See this link from 3 years ago. It's the GTF spool up that your hearing.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1342525&p=19073205&hilit=spool+up#p19073205

That's a great video, but actually there's one from Matt Cochran in Atlanta that I actually think is slightly better. I'll attach the link below; start watching at 1:45. It's a but muddled but it's audible if you turn up the volume

https://youtu.be/jBIErpgSduw

Folks, keep on topic with posts. Since the topic is DL's A220 reliability (effectively), feel free to compare/contrast with other fleet A220/E2/E-jet reliability.