Airbus A320 family

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 (later McDonnell 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. It was abandoned after intruding on A310 specifications. 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 (JET) programme was set up, established by British Aerospace (BAe), Aerospatiale, Dornier and Fokker. It was based at the then BAe (formerly Vickers) site in Weybridge, Surrey, UK. Although the members were all Airbus' partners, they regarded the project as a separate collaboration from Airbus. They would measure respectively. During A320 development, Airbus considered propfan technology, which was backed by Lufthansa. 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 (JAA) certification was awarded on 26 February 1988. 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 was the first to receive the stretched A321 on 27 January 1994. Launched on 24 November 1988 after commitments for 183 aircraft from 10 customers were secured. The fuselage was lengthened by four plugs (two ahead and two behind the wings), making the A321 longer than the A320 overall. This came after a dispute between the French, who claimed the move would incur $150 million (€135 million) in unnecessary expenditures associated with the new plant, An additional $180 million (€175 million) was borrowed from the European Investment Bank and private investors. Airbus began offering the new model from 22 May 1992, with the actual launch of the $275 million (€250 million) programme occurring on 10 June 1993; The engines were to be two Rolls-Royce BR715s, CFM56-9s, or the Pratt & Whitney PW6000; Tests on the lead engine, the PW6000, revealed worse-than-expected fuel consumption. Consequently, Pratt & Whitney abandoned the five-stage high-pressure compressor (HPC) for the MTU-designed six-stage HPC. The 129 order book for the A318 shrank to 80, largely because of switches to other A320 family members. Airbus produced a total of 42 A320s per month in 2015, and expected to increase to 50 per month in 2017. Production of parts takes place in a large number of countries around the world. For example, the centre fuselage is made in Hamburg, Germany; the horizontal stabiliser is produced in Getafe, Spain; and the rudder is produced in Harbin, China. As Airbus targets a 60 monthly global production rate by mid-2019, the Tianjin line delivered 51 in 2016 and it could assemble six per month from four as it starts producing A320neos in 2017; 147 Airbus were delivered in 2016 in China, 20% of its production, mostly A320-family, a 47% market share as the country should become the world's largest market ahead of the US before 2027. In June 2018, along a larger and modernised delivery centre, Airbus inaugurated its fourth Hamburg production line, with two seven-axis robots to drill 80% of fuselage upper side holes and autonomous mobile tooling platforms, following Design Thinking principles. By January 2019, Mobile was outputting 4.5 A320s per month, raising to 5 by the end of the year. In September 2019, Airbus reached a milestone with the delivery of the 9000th A320-family aircraft, to Easyjet. In October 2019, Airbus inaugurated a highly automated fuselage structure assembly line for A320 Family aircraft in Hamburg, showcasing an evolution in Airbus' industrial production system. Production rates continue to rise, and Airbus aims to reach a production rate of 63 aircraft per month by 2021, which would result in the 10,000th delivery occurring early that year. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, demand for new jets was reduced in 2020 and Airbus cut its monthly production from 60 to 40 A320s. In October 2020, the 500th A320 built in Tianjin, an A320neo, was delivered to China Southern, twelve years after the final assembly line start in 2008. A320 Enhanced In 2006, Airbus started the A320 Enhanced (A320E) programme as a series of improvements targeting a 4–5% efficiency gain, with large winglets (2%), aerodynamic refinements (1%), weight savings and a new aircraft cabin. Engine improvements that reduced fuel consumption by 1% were made to the A320 in 2007 with the CFM56 Tech Insertion and in 2008 with the V2500Select (One). Sharklets In 2006, Airbus tested three styles of winglets intended to counteract the wing's lift-induced drag and wingtip vortices more effectively than the previous wingtip fence. The first design type to be tested was developed by Airbus and based on work done by the programme. The second type of winglet incorporated a more blended design and was designed by Winglet Technology, a company based in Wichita, Kansas, US. Two aircraft were used in the flight test evaluation campaign – the prototype A320, which had been retained by Airbus for testing, and a new build aircraft which was fitted with both types of winglets before it was delivered to JetBlue. Despite the anticipated efficiency gains and development work, Airbus announced that those winglets would not be offered to customers, claiming that the weight of the modifications required negated any aerodynamic benefits. On 17 December 2008, Airbus announced it was to begin flight testing an existing blended winglet design developed by Aviation Partners Inc. as part of an A320 modernisation programme using the A320 prototype. Airbus launched the sharklet blended winglets during the November 2009 Dubai Airshow. Installation adds but offers a 3.5% fuel burn reduction on flights over , saving approximately US$220,000 and 700 t of CO2 per aircraft per year. The wingtip devices are manufactured by Korean Air Aerospace Division. In December 2011, Airbus filed suit in the western district of Texas over Aviation Partners' claims of infringement of its patents on winglet design and construction which were granted in 1993. Airbus' lawsuit sought to reject responsibility to pay royalties to Aviation Partners for using its designs, despite work performed together with both parties to develop advanced winglets for the Airbus A320neo. The lawsuit was confidentially settled in 2018, with the result that Airbus paid a large but undisclosed settlement. The first sharklet-equipped Airbus A320 was delivered to Indonesia AirAsia on 21 December 2012, offering a payload and range increases over the original aircraft specifications. Cabin In 2007, Airbus introduced a new enhanced, quieter cabin with better luggage storage and a more modern look and feel, and a new galley that reduced weight, increased revenue space and improved ergonomics and design for food hygiene and recycling. It offered a new air purifier with filters and a catalytic converter, removing unpleasant smells from the air before it is pumped into the cabin, as well as LEDs for mood lighting and a new passenger service unit (PSU). Offering 10% more overhead bin volume, more shoulder room, a weight reduction, a new intercom and in-flight entertainment system, noise reduction and slimmer PSU, the enhanced cabin can be retrofitted. The flight crew controls the cabin through touchscreen displays. Second generation (NEO: New Engine Option) The A320neo (neo for new engine option) is an incremental development launched on 1 December 2010, making its first flight on 25 September 2014 and introduced by Lufthansa on 25 January 2016. Re-engined with CFM International LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines and with large sharklets, it was designed to be 15% more fuel efficient. Its three variants are based on the previous A319, A320 and A321. Airbus received 6,031 orders by March 2018 and delivered 318 by May 2018. The original family was renamed A320ceo, for current engine option. As of July 2024, IndiGo has 173 Airbus A320neos in service, making it the largest operator of this type of aircraft. Replacement airliner In 2006, Airbus was studying a future replacement for the A320 series, tentatively dubbed as NSR or "New Short-Range aircraft". The follow-on aircraft to replace the A320 was to be named A30X. In 2007, Airbus North America President Barry Eccleston stated that the earliest the aircraft could have been available was 2017. In January 2010, John Leahy, Airbus's chief operating officer-customers, stated that an all-new single-aisle aircraft was unlikely to be constructed before 2024 or 2025. == Design ==

airliner with twin turbofans and a conventional tail.|left The Airbus A320 family are narrow-body aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear and powered by two wing pylon-mounted turbofan engines. After the oil price rises of the 1970s, Airbus needed to minimise the trip fuel costs of the A320. To that end, it adopted composite primary structures for the empennage with a conventional tail configuration, centre-of-gravity control using fuel, a glass cockpit with side-stick controllers and a two-crew flight deck. Airbus claimed the 737-300 burns 35% more fuel and has a 16% higher operating cost per seat than the V2500-powered A320. A 150-seat A320 burns of jet fuel over (between Los Angeles and New York City), or per seat with a 0.8 kg/L fuel. Its wing is long and thin, offering better aerodynamic efficiency because of the higher aspect ratio than the competing 737 and MD-80. Airframe and 25° wing sweep The Airbus A320 family are low-wing cantilever monoplanes with a conventional empennage with a single vertical stabiliser and rudder. Its wing sweep is 25 degrees. Compared to other airliners of the same class, the A320 features a wider single-aisle cabin of outside diameter, Its tail assembly is made almost entirely of such composites by CASA, which also builds the elevators, main landing gear doors, and rear fuselage parts. Airbus offers an avionics upgrade for older A320 aircraft, the In-Service Enhancement Package, to keep them updated. Digital head-up displays are also available. The A320 retained the dark cockpit (where an indicator is off when its system is running; useful for drawing attention to dysfunctions when an indicator is lit) from the A310, the first widebody designed to be operated without a flight engineer and influenced by Bernard Ziegler, first Airbus CEO Henri Ziegler's son. Fly-by-wire The A320 is the world's first airliner with digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system: input commands through the side-stick are interpreted by flight control computers and transmitted to flight control surfaces within the flight envelope protection; in the 1980s the computer-controlled dynamic system of the Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter cross-fertilised the Airbus team which tested FBW on an A300. At its introduction, fly-by-wire and flight envelope protection was a new experience for many pilots. All following Airbuses have similar human/machine interface and systems control philosophy to facilitate cross-type qualification with minimal training. For Roger Béteille, then Airbus president, introducing fly-by-wire with flight envelope protection was one of the most difficult decisions he had ever made, explaining: "Either we were going to be first with new technologies or we could not expect to be in the market." In 1988, the flight management computer contained six Intel 80286 CPUs, running in three logical pairs, with 2.5 megabytes of memory. Engines The suppliers providing turbofan engines for the A320ceo family were CFM International with the CFM56, International Aero Engines offering its V2500, and Pratt & Whitney's PW6000 engines available only for the A318, while for the A320neo family are CFM International LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. File:AFR A320 F-HBNH 3nov14 LFBO-2.jpg|The CFM56, with unmixed exhaust, is available on all variants. File:Large engine of an airbus.JPG|The IAE V2500, with mixed exhaust, equips the larger variants. File:Avianca Brazil A318 (PR-AVL) landed at Congonhas-São Paulo International Airport (1) (cropped).jpg|The PW6000 is available on the smallest A318. == Operational history ==

The Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) issued the type certificate for the A320 on 26 February 1988. After entering the market on 18 April 1988 with Air France, Airbus then expanded the A320 family rapidly, launching the 185-seat A321 in 1989 and first delivered it in 1994; launching the 124-seat A319 in 1993 and delivering it in 1996; and launching the 107-seat A318 in 1999 with first deliveries in 2003. , the global A320 fleet had 99.7 percent operational reliability in the last 12 months and completed more than 176 million flights over 328 million block hours since its entry into service. After an incident where JetBlue Flight 1230 experienced a rapid descent when solar radiation inadvertently corrupted flight data on 30 October 2025, Airbus and EASA issued a mandatory safety notice at the end of November for over 6,000 aircraft, over half of the family's fleet. Most only required a patch reverting the flight control software for the aircraft's elevators that could be completed in three hours, while about 900 with older software needed a replacement of onboard hardware. The impact on airline operations was relatively minor; although there were some delays, most airlines were able to complete the change within three days. Avianca notably suffered bigger impacts as it had upgraded 92% of its aircraft to the software version that it had to roll back from, resulting in the airline closing ticket sales until 8 December. The update has been cited as a contributing factor to the major 2025 IndiGo disruption. Competition (foreground). The A320 family was developed to compete with the Boeing 737 Classics (-300/-400/-500) and the McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90 series, and has since faced challenges from the Boeing 737 Next Generation (-600/-700/-800/-900) and the 717 during its two decades in service. As of 2010, the A320 family also faced competition from Embraer's E-195 (to the A318) and the CSeries being developed by Bombardier (later Airbus A220) to the A318/A319. Airbus has delivered 8,605 A320 family aircraft since their certification/first delivery in early 1988, with another 6,056 on firm order (as of 31 December 2018). since March 1988, Maintenance A Checks are every 750 flight hours and structural inspections are at 6 and 12-year intervals.--> == Variants ==

The baseline A320 has given rise to a family of aircraft which share a common design but with passenger capacity ranges from 100, on the A318, A318 . The Airbus A318 is the smallest member of the Airbus A320 family. The A318 carries up to 132 passengers and has a maximum range of . The aircraft entered service in July 2003 with Frontier Airlines, and shares a common type rating with all other Airbus A320 family variants, allowing existing A320 family pilots to fly the aircraft without the need for further training. It is the largest commercial aircraft certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency for steep approach operations, allowing flights at airports such as London City Airport. Relative to other Airbus A320 family variants, the A318 has sold in only small numbers with total orders for only 80 aircraft placed . In 2018, the A318 list price was US$77.4 million. The A319's launch customer, in fact, was ILFC, which had placed an order for six A319s by 1993. In 2018, the A319 list price was US$92.3 million. Range with eight passengers' payload and auxiliary fuel tanks (ACTs) is up to . Upon resale, the aircraft can be reconfigured as a standard A319 by removing its extra tanks and corporate cabin outfit, thus maximising its resale value. It was formerly also known as the ACJ, or Airbus Corporate Jet, while starting with 2014 it has the marketing designation ACJ319. The aircraft seats up to 39 passengers, but may be outfitted by the customers into any configuration. Tyrolean Jet Services Mfg. GmbH & CO KG, MJET and Reliance Industries are among its users. The A319CJ competes with other ultralarge-cabin corporate jets such as the Boeing 737-700-based Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and Embraer Lineage 1000, as well as with large-cabin and ultralong-range Gulfstream G650, Gulfstream G550 and Bombardier's Global 6000. It is powered by the same engine types as the A320. The A319CJ was used by the ''Escadron de Transport, d'Entraînement et de Calibration'' which is in charge of transportation for France's officials and also by the Flugbereitschaft of the German Air Force for transportation of Germany's officials. An ACJ serves as a presidential or official aircraft of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Slovakia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela. A320 A320-200 with sharklets The A320 series has two variants, the A320-100 and A320-200. Only 21 A320-100s were produced. In 1988, the value of a new A320 was $30 million, reaching $40 million by the end of the 1990s, a 30% increase lower than inflation; it dipped to $37 million after 2001, then peaked to $47 million in 2008, and stabilised at $40–42 million until the transition to the A320neo. In 2018, its list price was US$101.0 million. A321 As the A320 was beginning operations in 1988, the A321 was launched as its first derivative the same year. The A321 fuselage is stretched by , with a front plug immediately forward of wing and a rear plug. The A321-100 maximum takeoff weight is increased by to . To maintain performance, double-slotted flaps were included, in addition to increasing the wing area by , to . The maiden flight of the first of two prototypes came on 11 March 1993. The A321-100 entered service in January 1994 with Lufthansa. As the A321-100 range was less than the A320, development of the heavier and longer range A321-200 began in 1995. The higher range was achieved through higher thrust engines (V2533-A5 or CFM56-5B3), minor structural strengthening, and an increase in fuel capacity with the installation of one or two optional tanks in the rear underfloor hold. Its fuel capacity was increased to and its maximum takeoff weight to . It first flew in December 1996 and entered service with Monarch Airlines in April 1997. The A321's closest Boeing competitors are the 737-900/900ER, and the 757-200. In 2018, the A321 list price was US$118.3 million. A total 1,784 units of the A321ceo model have been delivered, with seven remaining on order as of 30 September 2023. == Conversions ==

Civilian variants Passenger-to-freighter (P2F) A programme to convert A320 and A321 aircraft into freighters was set up by Airbus Freighter Conversion GmbH. Airframes were to be converted by Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW) in Dresden, Germany, and Zhukovsky, Russia. Launch customer AerCap signed a firm contract on 16 July 2008 to convert 30 of its passenger A320/A321s into A320/A321P2F (passenger to freighter). However, on 3 June 2011, Airbus announced all partners would end the passenger-to-freighter programme, citing high demand on used airframes for passenger service. Finally, on 17 June 2015 ST Aerospace signed agreements with Airbus and EFW for a collaboration to launch the A320/A321 passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion programme. ; In August 2019, Qantas was announced as launch operator for the A321P2F converted freighter. Titan Airways received its first of three A321P2F in January 2021. The initial converted aircraft first flew on 22 January 2020, to be delivered to Vallair, and secured EASA supplementary type certificate in February. It was to replace older converted Boeing 757s with 14 main deck and 10 lower deck positions, carrying up to over . Airbus sees a market for 1,000 narrowbody conversions over the 2020-2040 period. On 27 October 2020, the first A321P2F was delivered to Qantas Airways, with windows and exit doors removed, and a large hydraulically actuated main cargo door installed. ; After EFW began the first A320 conversion in March 2021, the A320P2F made its maiden three-hour flight on 8 December from Singapore. The aircraft was first delivered in 2006, and its first cargo operator was to be Nairobi-based Astral Aviation from the second quarter of 2022, leased from Middle Eastern lessor Vaayu Group. The A320P2F received its supplemental type certification at the end of March 2022. The A320P2F is suitable for express domestic as well as regional operations and can accommodate up to over , offering space for 14 large containers/pallets on the main deck and 10 LD3-type containers on the lower deck. ;DRDO SCA (Signals Intelligence and Communication Jamming Aircraft) In 2019, the DRDO's Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) initiated a programme to fulfil an Indian Air Force requirement for signals intelligence gathering, communications jamming, electronic warfare and spoofing roles. In 2023, at Aero India, DRDO showcased a 1:32 scale model of the SCA system, outlining its capabilities. DRDO plans to base the SCA system on a preowned Airbus A319 or Airbus A321. In February 2024, the Indian Defence Ministry's Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) granted Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the acquisition of three SCA systems initially at an estimated cost of ₹6,300 crore (US$717.14 million). == Operators ==

is the largest A320 operator. , there are 11,508 A320 family aircraft in commercial service with over 375 operators. The five largest operators are American Airlines (489), China Eastern Airlines (391), IndiGo (367), easyJet (356) and China Southern Airlines (353). Aircraft in operation include 39 A318s, 1,233 A319s (1,192 ceo, 41 neo), 6,491 A320s (4,133 ceo, 2,358 neo) and 3,745 A321s (1,696 ceo, 2,049 neo) aircraft. In addition, 1,040 A320ceo family aircraft (41 A318s, 292 A319ceos, 619 A320ceos and 88 A321ceos) and 5 A320neo family aircraft (3 A320neos + 2 A321neos) were out of service through retirement or write-off. Eight years later, on 9 October 2020, the airline received MSN 10,000, an A321neo, at the celebration of its 75th anniversary. In December 2022, over 10,000 A320 family aircraft were operated by more than 330 airlines, completing more than 158 million flights, or 292 million hours in the air. Its successor, the A320neo family, improved on this with 1,420 orders and commitments in less than a year in 2011. In November 2013, the A320 family aircraft reached 10,000 orders. As of 2017, there were 6,965 A320 Family aircraft in service, more than the 6,864 Boeing 737s, making it the most-operated airliner ever. In October 2019, the A320 family became the highest-selling airliner family with 15,193 orders, surpassing the Boeing 737's total of 15,136. In August 2021, the A320 family passed the 10,000 delivery mark, 33 years after its introduction, versus 50 years for the Boeing 737, which passed the 10,000 delivery mark in March 2018. On 16 December 2021, the last member of the A320ceo family, an A321ceo (MSN 10315), was delivered from the Airbus Mobile assembly line in Alabama to Delta Air Lines, registered N129DN. In July 2022, total orders for the A320neo family reached 8,502, exceeding the total orders for the A320ceo family of 8,120. In July 2023, total orders for the A321neo reached 5,259, surpassing the record 5,205 orders for the Boeing 737-800, making it the most ordered variant of any airliner in history. In December 2023, the A320neo family became the first of airliner generations to reach a record order of 10,000 units and an order backlog of 7,000 units. , a total of 12,553 A320 family aircraft have been delivered, with 6 A320ceos (2 A319s and 4 A320s from two defunct airlines) remaining in the backlog. In the first three months of 2026, Airbus delivered 81 A320neo family aircraft, comprising 26 A320neos and 55 A321neos. The A320 family backlog remains over the 7,000 mark, of which A321s comprise 70%, and total orders have reached 19,971, Data == Accidents and incidents ==

, across the entire A320 family, 180 major aviation accidents and incidents have occurred, including 38 hull loss accidents. resulting in a total of fatalities. The deadliest incident involving the A320 family was the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 on October 31, 2015, with 224 fatalities. The A320 family has experienced 50 incidents in which several flight displays were lost.