With the delivery of an A321neo to Middle East Airlines (MEA), the unofficial 10,000th aircraft from the successful A320 series was delivered on Friday. A milestone in the history of a series of aircraft that, over thirty years, conquered a rock-solid position in a highly competitive market.
The Airbus A320 prototype flew for the first time on February 22nd 1987. There were high hopes for the newest member of the Airbus family, which at that time consisted of the A300 and A310. The A320 was to be the European answer to the successful Boeing 737, which had been on the market for twenty years, and to the MD-80 that McDonnell Douglas introduced as the successor to the DC-9.
Developing the A320 turned out to be an excellent move by Airbus. After the A320, the A321, A319, and A318 were also introduced, in order to be able to offer airlines a wide range of aircraft that were almost the same in terms of systems. This made it possible to save on training and maintenance costs. In 2010, the A320neo series was announced, which is more economical than the prior generations.
Airbus has delivered more than 9,450 A320 series aircraft to over 300 customers in recent decades. There are currently about 6,050 orders in the order books.
Although Middle East Airlines received the honor of taking delivery of an A320 family with serial number 10.000, fewer than 10, 000 have been built. The range 9600 to 9900 is not used, and sometimes serial numbers are also assigned to ordered aircraft that are ultimately not built. Aircraft with higher serial numbers have now also left the factory halls in Toulouse, Hamburg, Mobile, and Tianjin.
Forty A320 family aircraft are built every month. Airbus decided to lower the production rate in March due to the decline in demand for aircraft due to the corona crisis. Normally, sixty new A320 series aircraft are produced every month.