Airbus A320 family
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus, and is the best-selling airliner ever built. The A320 aircraft programme was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France.
The first member of the family was followed by the stretched A321, the shorter A319, and the shortest variant, the A318.
Final assembly takes place in Toulouse in France; Hamburg in Germany; Tianjin in China since 2009; and Mobile, Alabama, in the United States since April 2016.
The twinjet has a six-abreast economy cross-section and came with either CFM56-5A or -5B, or IAE V2500 turbofan engines, except the A318. The A318 has either two CFM56-5B engines or a pair of PW6000 engines in place of the IAE V2500.
The family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire and side-stick flight controls in airliners.
Variants offer maximum take-off weights from, with a range of.
The long A318 typically accommodates 107 to 132 passengers.
The 124-156 seat A319 is long.
The A320 is long and can accommodate 150 to 186 passengers.
The A321 offers 185 to 230 seats.
The Airbus Corporate Jets are modified business jet versions of the standard commercial variants.
In December 2010, Airbus announced the re-engined A320neo, which entered service with Lufthansa in January 2016. With more efficient turbofans and improvements including sharklets, it offers up to 15% better fuel economy. The previous A320 generation was renamed A320ceo.
American Airlines is the largest A320 family operator with 487 aircraft in its fleet, while IndiGo is the largest customer with 930 aircraft on order. A total of 19,635 A320 family aircraft had been ordered with 12,472 delivered to customers as of 2025. It overtook the Boeing 737 family in total orders in October 2019, and in total deliveries in September 2025. It is also the most-utilised airliner with 11,481 units in service with more than 350 operators. The global A320 fleet had completed more than 176 million flights over 328 million block hours since its entry into service. The A320ceo initially competed with the 737 Classic and the MD-80, then their successors, the 737 Next Generation and the MD-90 respectively, while the 737 MAX is Boeing's response to the A320neo.
Development
Origins
When Airbus designed the A300 during the late 1960s and early 1970s, it envisaged a broad family of airliners with which to compete against Boeing and Douglas, two established US aerospace manufacturers. From the moment of formation, Airbus had begun studies into derivatives of the Airbus A300B in support of this long-term goal. Prior to the service introduction of the first Airbus airliners, engineers within Airbus had identified nine possible variations of the A300 known as A300B1 to B9. A 10th variation, conceived in 1973, later the first to be constructed, was designated the A300B10. It was a smaller aircraft which would be developed into the long-range Airbus A310. Airbus then focused its efforts on the single-aisle market, which was dominated by the 737 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9.Plans from a number of European aircraft manufacturers called for a successor to the relatively successful BAC One-Eleven, and to replace the 737-200 and DC-9. Germany's MBB, British Aircraft Corporation, Sweden's Saab and Spain's CASA worked on the EUROPLANE, a 180- to 200-seat aircraft. It was abandoned after intruding on A310 specifications. VFW-Fokker, Dornier and Hawker Siddeley worked on a number of 150-seat designs.
The design within the JET study that was carried forward was the JET2, which then became the Airbus S.A1/2/3 series, before settling on the A320 name for its launch in 1984. Previously, Hawker Siddeley had produced a design called the HS.134 "Airbus" in 1965, an evolution of the HS.121 Trident, which shared much of the general arrangement of the later JET3 study design. The name "Airbus" at the time referred to a BEA requirement, rather than to the later international programme.
Design effort
In June 1977 a new Joint European Transport programme was set up, established by British Aerospace, Aerospatiale, Dornier and Fokker. It was based at the then BAe site in Weybridge, Surrey, UK. Although the members were all Airbus' partners, they regarded the project as a separate collaboration from Airbus. This project was considered the forerunner of Airbus A320, encompassing the 130- to 188-seat market, powered by two CFM56s. It would have a cruise speed of Mach 0.84. The programme was later transferred to Airbus, leading up to the creation of the Single-Aisle studies in 1980, led by former leader of the JET programme, Derek Brown. The group looked at three different variants, covering the 125- to 180-seat market, called SA1, SA2 and SA3. Although unaware at the time, the consortium was producing the blueprints for the A319, A320 and A321, respectively. The single-aisle programme created divisions within Airbus about whether to design a shorter-range twinjet rather than a longer-range quadjet wanted by the West Germans, particularly Lufthansa. However, works proceeded, and the German carrier would eventually order the twinjet.In February 1981 the project was re-designated A320, with efforts focused on the blueprint formerly designated SA2. During the year, Airbus worked with Delta Air Lines on a 150-seat aircraft envisioned and required by the airline. The A320 would carry 150 passengers using fuel from wing fuel tanks only. The -200 had the centre tank activated, increasing fuel capacity from. They would measure respectively. Airbus considered a fuselage diameter of "the Boeing 707 and 727, or do something better" and settled on a wider cross-section with a internal width, compared to Boeing's. Although heavier, this allowed the A320 to compete more effectively with the 737. The A320 wing went through several design stages, eventually measuring.
National shares
The UK, France and West Germany wanted responsibility over final assembly and its associated work, known as "work-share arguments". The Germans requested an increased work-share of 40%, while the British wanted the major responsibilities to be swapped around to give partners production and research and development experience. In the end, British work-share was increased from that of the two previous Airbuses.France was willing to commit to launch aid, or subsidies, while the Germans were more cautious. The UK government was unwilling to provide funding for the tooling, requested by BAe and estimated at £250 million; it was postponed for three years. On 1 March 1984, the British government and BAe agreed that £50 million would be paid, whether the A320 flew or not, while the rest would be paid as a levy on each aircraft sold.
In 1984, the program cost was then estimated at £2 billion by Flight International, equivalent to £ billion today.
Launch
The programme was launched on 2 March 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, and then Inex Adria. 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.During A320 development, Airbus considered propfan technology, which was backed by Lufthansa. At the time unproven, the technology essentially consisted of a fan placed outside the engine nacelle, offering turbofan speeds and turboprop economics; ultimately, Airbus stuck with turbofans.
Power on the A320 was to be supplied by two CFM56-5-A1s rated at. It was the only engine available until the arrival of the IAE V2500, offered by International Aero Engines, a group composed of Rolls-Royce plc, Pratt & Whitney, Japanese Aero Engine Corporation, Fiat and MTU. The first V2500 variant, the V2500-A1, has a thrust output of, hence the name. It is 4% more efficient than the CFM56, with cruise thrust-specific fuel consumption for the -A5 at for the CFM56-5A1.
Entry into service
In the presence of then-French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the first A320 was rolled out of final assembly line at Toulouse on 14 February 1987 and made its maiden flight on 22 February in 3 hours and 23 minutes. The flight test programme took 1,200 hours over 530 flights. European Joint Aviation Authorities certification was awarded on 26 February 1988. The first A320 was delivered to Air France on 28 March, and began commercial service on 8 April with a flight between Paris and Berlin via Düsseldorf. In 1988, the clean-sheet aircraft program cost was 5.486 billion French francs.Stretching the A320: A321
The first variation of the baseline A320 was the Airbus A321, also known as the Stretched A320, A320-500 and A325. Launched on 24 November 1988 after commitments for 183 aircraft from 10 customers were secured. The aircraft was to be a minimally changed derivative, apart from minor wing modifications and a fuselage stretch. The wing would incorporate double-slotted flaps and minor trailing edge modifications, increasing wing area from to. The fuselage was lengthened by four plugs, making the A321 longer than the A320 overall. The length increase required enlarged overwing exits, which were repositioned in front of and behind the wings. The centre fuselage and undercarriage were reinforced to accommodate an increase in maximum takeoff weight of, for a total of.Final assembly for the A321 would be carried out in Germany, a first for any Airbus. This came after a dispute between the French, who claimed the move would incur $150 million in unnecessary expenditures associated with the new plant, and the Germans, who argued that it would be more productive for Airbus in the long run. The second production line was located at Hamburg, which would also subsequently produce the smaller Airbus A319 and A318. For the first time, Airbus entered the bond market, through which it raised $480 million to finance development costs. An additional $180 million was borrowed from the European Investment Bank and private investors.
The maiden flight of the Airbus A321 came on 11 March 1993, when the prototype, registration F-WWIA, flew with IAE V2500 engines; the second prototype, equipped with CFM56-5B turbofans, flew in May. Lufthansa and Alitalia were the first to order the stretched Airbuses, with 20 and 40 aircraft, respectively. The first of Lufthansa's V2500-A5-powered A321s arrived on 27 January 1994, while Alitalia received its first CFM56-5B-powered aircraft on 22 March.