The Airbus A320 family of aircraft

The Airbus A320 family of aircraft is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus.

As of September 2024, a total of 11,659 Airbus A320 family aircraft have been delivered to global airlines, becoming the most ordered variant of any aircraft in the world.

Airbus SE is a European aerospace corporation whose primary business is the design and manufacture of commercial jet aircraft.

Airbus also has separate defence, space and helicopter divisions. It has long been the world's leading helicopter manufacturer and in 2019, it emerged as the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft.

The company was incorporated as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) in 2000 through the merger of the French Aérospatiale-Matra, the German Daimler Chrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) and the Spanish Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA).

The new entity subsequently acquired full ownership of its subsidiary, Airbus Industrie GIE, a joint venture of European aerospace companies originally incorporated in 1970 to develop and produce a wide-body aircraft to compete with American-built airliners.

In 2015, EADS rebranded itself as Airbus SE.

The "SE" in its corporate name stands for Societas Europaea, which symbolises a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU) based on the Statute for a European Company. Such a company can more easily transfer to or merge with companies in other EU member states.

Airbus SE has major offices and assembly plants in France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, along with more recent additions in Canada, China, and the US.

The Airbus product line started with the A300 in 1972, the world's first wide-body, twinjet aircraft.

The aircraft greatly benefited from the 1976 introduction of the ETOPS 90 rule, which allowed twinjet aircraft to operate up to 90 minutes (increased from 60 minutes) away from the nearest airport.

Under the new rule, the A300 was able to operate over the North Atlantic, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean more efficiently than the trijets and four-engine jet aircraft offered by competitors.

A shorter, re-winged, re-engineered variant of the A300, known as the A310, followed in 1982.

The aircraft remained in production until 2007.

Building on its success with the A300, Airbus worked to develop a narrow-body aircraft along with additional wide-body aircraft. The narrow-body endeavours led to the launch of the A320 in 1987, which was and continues to be a major commercial success.

The success of the A320 led Airbus to introduce the A320 family, which includes a lengthened version A321 in 1993, the shorter A319, developed in 1995, and the even shorter A318, developed in 2002.

The A320 family has a six-abreast economy cross-section and is powered by either CFM56 or IAE V2500 turbofan engines, except the CFM56/PW6000, which powers the A318.

The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire and side-stick flight controls in airliners.

All Airbus A320 family aircraft have similar cockpit systems, making it easier to train and cross-qualify cockpit crew.

The A320 programme was launched on March 2, 1984. At the time, Airbus had 96 orders.

Air France was its first customer to sign a "letter of intent" for 25 A320s and options for 25 more at the 1981 Paris Air Show. In October 1983, British Caledonian placed seven firm orders, bringing total orders to more than 80.

Cyprus Airways became the first customer to place an order for V2500-powered A320s in November 1984, followed by Pan Am with 16 firm orders and 34 options in January 1985.

One of the most significant orders occurred when Northwest Airlines placed an order for 100 A320s in October 1986, powered by CFM56 engines, later confirmed at the 1990 Farnborough Airshow.

In the presence of then-French prime minister Jacques Chirac and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the first A320 was rolled out of the final assembly line at Toulouse on February 14, 1987. The maiden flight was on February 22, 1987, and lasted three hours and 23 minutes. The flight test programme took 1,200 hours over 530 flights.

European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) certification was awarded on February 26, 1988.

All Airbus aircraft are also built to the US FAA Part 25 requirements. This allows Airbus to penetrate the US market and sell its aircraft to US airlines.

The first A320 was delivered to Air France on March 28, 1988, and began commercial service on April 8, 1988, with a flight between Paris and Berlin via Düsseldorf.

In December 2010, Airbus announced that the A320 would be re-engined with either the Pratt & Whitney Purepower PW1100G-JM geared turbofan engine or the CFM International LEAP-1A engine. The re-engined aircraft was designated as A320neo (new engine option). The first A320neo entered service with Lufthansa in January 2016.

With more efficient turbofans and improvements, including wingtip devices, which reduce drag, the A320neo offers up to 15 per cent better fuel economy.

The older A320 generation aircraft are now called A320ceo (current engine option).

The Toulouse Blagnac final assembly line builds A320s and the Hamburg Finkenwerder final assembly line builds A318s, A319s, and A321s.

Airbus has factories in Tianjin, China, which assembles A319s, A320s, and A321s. Airbus Americas factory in Mobile, Alabama, also assembles A320s and A321s.

The production of parts takes place in a large number of countries around the world. The centre fuselage is made in Hamburg, Germany; the horizontal stabiliser is produced in Getafe, Spain; and the rudder is produced in Harbin, China. Airbus aircraft wings are manufactured in the UK by Airbus UK.

American Airlines is the largest A320 operator, with 479 aircraft in its fleet, while India’s IndiGo is the largest customer, with 930 aircraft on order.

In October 2019, the A320 family surpassed the Boeing 737 to become the highest-selling airliner.

As of September 2024, a total of 18,912 A320 family aircraft had been ordered and 11,659 delivered, of which 10,763 aircraft are in service with more than 350 operators.

The global A320 fleet has completed more than 176 million flights over 328 million block hours. The A320ceo initially competed with the Boeing 737 Classic and the MD-80 and their successors, the 737 Next Generation (737NG) and the MD-90, respectively.

The main competitor to the Airbus family of A320neo aircraft is the Boeing family of 737 MAX aircraft.