What a year! Why 2023 was a record-breaker for the A320 Family

The A320 Family has plenty to celebrate in 2023.

By the end of November 2023, Airbus’ highly successful A320 Family had already logged 1,395 orders, including the  single largest order for 500 aircraft, from Indian airline Indigo. 2023 is following a trend: in 2022, the A320 Family logged 857 orders.

The market for single-aisle aircraft has bounced back strongly from the dark days of the COVID pandemic. Airlines worldwide particularly appreciate the modern, efficient and versatile A320 Family.

In recent years the Family’s largest model, the A321neo, has been successful both in terms of volumes and speed of sales. The variant accounts for around two-thirds of the 6,739 A320 Family aircraft in Airbus’ current order book.

To keep up with such strong demand, Airbus is growing its global industrial footprint with the goal of bringing A320 Family production up to 75 aircraft per month in 2026. At the same time, the company’s single-aisle final assembly lines (FALs) are evolving to produce a mix of aircraft models with new cabin and comfort standards.

Airbus is doubling the number of FALs capable of producing the A321neo, compared to 2019. By 2026, ten A320 Family FALs around the world will be capable of producing the A321neo.

In 2023, Airbus began construction of a second FAL in Mobile (USA) and in Tianjin (China).  Toulouse (France) celebrated the inauguration of a FAL dedicated to the A321neo, with a second to follow. In Hamburg (Germany), where four FALs produce all members of the A320 Family, Airbus inaugurated a dedicated hangar to equip the A321 eXtra Long Range (XLR). With all locations now capable of assembling the A321neo, Airbus’ global single-aisle footprint is truly more flexible, resilient and closer to its customers. 

This incredible ramp-up expands Airbus’ industrial footprint and is made possible by the thousands of people working at production sites around the world. The company is proud of this growing, multi-cultural family that makes up #TeamAirbus and the positive local impact its presence makes. 

With more than 20 Airbus sites contributing to A320 Family production, Airbus continues to grow and onboard many newcomers to join this exciting journey. The ambitious plan for 2023 is to recruit circa 13,000 employees globally and it is progressing well, confirming Airbus attractivity. In addition to the traditional industrial skills - from manufacturing engineering, structures and systems to avionics - Airbus also attracts employees to critical jobs such as quality, logistic and supply chain specialists, customer line managers or digital manufacturing and cybersecurity specialists.

This growth is a strong sign of confidence in Airbus and the aviation industry as a whole. The A320 Family contributes to making further progress towards low-carbon aviation, offering a 20% fuel burn reduction compared to previous-generation aircraft.