There’s a new most flown commercial jet in the world, and it’s taking over that title from the Boeing 737…
In this post:
Airbus A320 series surpasses 12,260 deliveries since launch
For just about as long as I’ve been alive, the Boeing 737 family of aircraft has been the most popular commercial aircraft in service. Obviously the Airbus A320 family is a major competitor to this, but Boeing has had a roughly two-decade head start on Airbus.
While the Boeing 737 entered commercial service in 1968, the Airbus A320 only entered commercial service in 1988. Despite the late start, there’s a pretty incredible milestone that has just been reached.
With the delivery of an Airbus A320neo overnight to Saudi carrier flyadeal, the Airbus A320 is now the best selling commercial plane in history, as reported by Reuters. Specifically, 12,260 of those planes have been delivered, compared to 12,259 Boeing 737s.
Let me emphasize that these numbers include the entire family of product lines. So for the A320, it includes everything from the A318s that are being phased out, to the brand new A321XLRs. Meanwhile the 737 includes everything from the original 737-100, to the 737 MAX 9.
Will the Airbus A320 be able to maintain this title?
It’s pretty wild that Airbus has now beat Boeing in the narrow body market, when you consider that Boeing had a roughly 20-year advantage. Admittedly production has ramped up quite a bit over the years, so the most recent 10 years is more significant than a period of 10 years decades back.
Boeing has of course had an absolutely awful several years, going back to 2018 and 2019, when we saw two Boeing 737 MAX crashes. Since then, we’ve seen Boeing severely restricted in terms of how many 737 MAXs it can deliver monthly. For that matter, two variants of the 737 MAX — the 737 MAX 7 and 737 MAX 10 — both still haven’t been certified.
As things currently stand, Airbus is just running circles around Boeing. For example, in 2024, Airbus delivered 766 planes, while Boeing delivered 348 planes.
So while Boeing is working toward boosting 737 MAX production considerably, I still don’t think it’ll be able to exceed Airbus A320 production anytime soon, and I think this could be a long term change.
For that matter, the Airbus A320 family is simply a superior and more versatile product, if you ask me. I say that from a passenger comfort standpoint, a range standpoint, etc. That’s especially true with the 737 MAX 7 and 737 MAX 10 still not certified.
Bottom line
The Airbus A320 has now overtaken the Boeing 737 as the world’s most delivered commercial jet, despite the latter having a two-decade advantage in terms of starting production. Boeing has of course had a really tough time in recent years, given the 737 MAX issues when it comes to safety and reliable production.
So it’s pretty incredible to see the 737 dethroned as the king of commercial aviation. But honestly, this is well deserved for Airbus, as the A320 family of aircraft is impressive.
What do you make of Airbus overtaking Boeing for having the most popular aircraft?
The A321NEO has sold more copies than all variants of the MAX, so, no it is not likely Boeing will reclaim the narrowbody title.
Airbus is selling the A320 and A220 families in the narrowbody market while Boeing sells just the MAX.
Boeing still holds the widebody title which is not at risk
While it's true the A320 family outsold the 737 family, the A321 is really competing with the 757. Boeing delivered over 1,000 757s. Still, the Airbus narrowbody will eventually surpass the 737/757.
It should be here, but thanks to politically motivated orders the markets been skewed massively. If it was purely based on the best planes, Boeing would have been long behind with their low quality death trap.
Not at all surprising.....given the shoddy workmanship and craven corporate greed that overwhelmed Boeing.
As someone from Spain - I felt a lot of pride at all the Iberia planes used in this article,
I wonder if Boeing will ever be able to catch up on its backlog and why they are not outsourcing or selling part of their production instead of paying billions in compensation for late deliveries. They could easily team up with another company.
Boeing already outsource 70% of aircraft design, manufacturing & assembly and it has been a dismal failure.
Surprise, surprise …. No! Not really, simply a Boeing own goal!
Boeing has killed a couple hundred passsengers by not following SOPs in the airline industry and trying to save costs. Anybody here who wanted to be on those flights?
Trust is a thing that is easily cracked and hard to regain.