Delta's latest plane includes a window in the bathroom

Delta pilot Mike Roelofs was on his aircraft at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport more than two hours before departure Friday morning, making sure everything was as it should be.

A cubby in the cockpit didn't have fire gloves. So he hollered back to a colleague to move the safety wear from the flight attendant's galley space to the front of the plane, where they are supposed to be stowed.

Roelofs was scheduled to fly a brand-new Airbus A220 airplane on its inaugural trip from MSP to Dallas-Fort Worth at 9:05 a.m., and he wanted everything to be perfect. It was the plane's first flight with passengers aboard and the first time the new aircraft model had been parked at one of Delta's MSP gates.

The A220 plays a key role in Delta's drawdown of its reliance on regional airlines, as it transitions those flights to Delta's mainline. The A220 isn't a big plane, just 109 seats, but it's Delta's new workhorse, primarily replacing 76-seat regional jets.

It's also part of the Atlanta-base carrier's long-term strategy of increasing its typical aircraft size while decreasing the number of 50-seat airplanes.

For passengers and aviation enthusiasts, the aircraft has a few things going for it: wider seats than any other Delta aircraft, larger windows, a new and improved entertainment system and the buzzworthy bathroom-with-a-window.

For pilots, there's no yoke column, which they use to steer the plane, jammed between their knees. Instead, they operate the aircraft with a joystick. The cockpit screens are bigger, and so are the windows.

The dials and equipment are more intuitive, he said. The aircraft, originally called the C Series, was designed by Bombardier before it sold that business line to Airbus.

"Most of the aircraft coming out today are just newer versions of the older one," Roelofs said. "This is an entirely new aircraft."

Roelofs flew the Boeing 717 before taking a five-week training course for certification on the A220. Now he oversees others on their flight checkoff runs. The aircraft's new engine is 20% more fuel efficient, and the hydraulic levels self regulate.

"There's just so much more automation, it's incredible," he said.

Delta is the first U.S. airline to take delivery of the aircraft. Though it will be used to serve lower-volume and often shorter routes, the aircraft has a 3,200-mile range. There are three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other, which means fewer middle seats. Delta has 16 in service so far, and plans to eventually scale up to 95 of the aircraft.

Jerry Hawkland, wearing his reflective safety vest, was roaming inside and outside the aircraft. The veteran maintenance instructor is the airplane's babysitter, flown in from Atlanta for a few weeks to train MSP's maintenance staff on the machine.

Every airplane model is different, and he is there to make sure the right buttons get pushed and the wrong ones don't.

Roelofs does the same from the cockpit, checking off other Delta captains on the new aircraft. "It's the latest and greatest in narrow-body aircraft," Roelofs said.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767