Airbus A320 flies past Boeing 737 as most-delivered jetliner in history

Europe’s Airbus broke a major commercial barrier on Tuesday when its A320 family of planes overtook the Boeing 737 to become the most-delivered jetliner in history.

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Boeing’s decades-old record fell with the handover of an A320neo to Saudi carrier Flynas, bringing total deliveries to 12,260 since the A320 series entered service in 1988, according to benchmark data from UK-based aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Airbus and Boeing did not reply to requests for comment on the data, tracked by leading aircraft supply analyst Rob Morris.

Demand for the industry’s workhorse A320 and 737 jets has surged in recent years, as economic growth led by Asia brought tens of millions of new middle-class travelers into the skies.

Together, Boeing and Airbus have delivered more than 25,000 of these jets, originally designed to serve major hubs but later widely adopted by low-cost carriers, which Airbus courted after Boeing cut output during a downturn in demand post-9/11.

Already the world’s largest planemaker by annual deliveries, Airbus now claims the top spot for cumulative narrow-body deliveries, capping a 40-year transatlantic battle for market share after early disagreements over strategy and the share of jobs among partner nations France, Germany, Spain and Britain.

“At the beginning, nobody thought it would work and now it’s winning, at least on the bigger variants,” said Adam Pilarski, former chief economist at Douglas Aircraft, which also competed with Boeing before being absorbed by its domestic rival in 1997.