By Tim Hepher
PRAGUE (Reuters) -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. Boeing’s decades-old record fell as a jet was delivered overnight to Saudi carrier Flynas, bringing deliveries to 12,260 since the A320 began service in 1988, according to benchmark data from UK-based consultancy Cirium, used across the industry.
Airbus did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the data, tracked by aircraft supply analyst Rob Morris.
Between them Boeing and Airbus have delivered more than 25,000 such jets, originally designed to feed large hubs and later widely adopted by low-cost carriers, which Airbus courted after Boeing cut output during a downturn in demand post-9/11.
Airbus is already the world’s largest planemaker by total annual deliveries, but the shattered ceiling in the narrow-body market caps a 40-year transatlantic battle for market share after early disagreements over strategy and the share of jobs between partner nations, France, Germany, Spain and Britain.
DECADES OF TRANSATLANTIC RIVALRY
The A320 was launched in 1984 at a time when many questioned whether Airbus would last another decade after painfully launching two wide-body jets. It first flew three years later.
Airbus engineers in Toulouse, France, gambled on introducing fly-by-wire computer controls for the first time to a mainstream airliner, a pioneering technology that faced resistance from unions and some carriers but later became widely accepted.
Airbus is now expanding production in the U.S. and China.
Boeing set the standard for narrow-body aircraft production with its popular 737, first introduced in the 1960s, but plunged into crisis following fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019. The company is gradually restoring output under regulatory limits.
The two plane giants are expected to introduce new models sometime next decade but both told the ISTAT conference in Prague on Monday they were unlikely to start development any time soon as they wait for advances in engine technology.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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