The family of single-aisle middle-size Airbus aircraft comprises four models offering two-class seating capacity for 107-185 passengers. They are A318, A319, A320 and A321. The family pioneered the use of the glass cockpit and digital fly-by-wire control system in a commercial aircraft.
The baseline model Airbus A320 first flew in February 1987 and entered service with Air France in 1988, with the stretched 185-seat Airbus A321 following in March 1994. The first of the two shorter-fuselage members, the 124-seat Airbus A319, entered service in May 1999, with the 107-seat Airbus A318 following in July 2003.
The A320 family became the most successfull commercial aircraft program of Airbus with more than 6 000 aircraft ordered and about 4 000 built. It is the second best-selling jet airliner family of all time after the famous Boeing 737. Airbus A320 model takes more than a half of these orders.
To replace these popular models Airbus has developed next-generation airliners based on the Airbus A320 series, which they called A320neo (New Engine Option). New engines and a number of modifications to the frame made the aircrafts more efficient. The first airliners of the Airbus A320neo entered service in 2016.
