Airbus was founded as Airbus Industrie GIE from a group of European aerospace companies in 1970 to produce a widebody aircraft able to compete with US-built designs. Some of the European companies that were merged into it are among the oldest aerospace companies in the world. Competing with the much larger United States and its Boeing, Lockheed, and McDonnell Douglas aerospace companies required the comparatively smaller European states to pool resources.

The Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner can be understood as laying the foundation for Airbus and pan-European aerospace cooperation. By some metrics, Airbus has grown to become the world’s largest commercial aerospace company. This is even though the US industry has also consolidated with the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger and the exit of Lockheed from the commercial sector. Airbus’s commercial aircraft have quietly shaped the economics of commercial air travel, although in more evolutionary than revolutionary ways.

Airbus A300

First entered service in 1974

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For the newly formed and consolidated Airbus, the A300 widebody commercial airliner is where it all began. Airbus was initially formed to develop the A300 to take advantage of improvements in the power and reliability of jet engines. This allowed the A300 to be the first commercial widebody airliner to be powered by only two engines and to permanently reduce the costs of widebody airliners. It would prove the winning formula that would outcompete the era’s trijet widebodies.

The A300 set the foundation for everything that followed in the Airbus story. The aircraft was later developed into the A310 and greatly influenced the later A330/A340 widebody. The A300 first entered service in 1972 with Air France. It also benefited at the time from various European state support of the then-fledgling Airbus.

The A300 came with a digital flight management system and was the first widebody commercial airliner to have a two-crew glass cockpit. This made it the first widebody airliner to eliminate the need for a flight engineer. Boeing went on to develop the Boeing 767 (entered service 1982) as its first widebody twinjet and the first airliner to receive ETOPS certification, overcoming a major limitation on twinjets.

Airbus A320

Entered service in 1988

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The Airbus A320 narrowbody family is arguably the most important aircraft Airbus has developed. The aircraft was not revolutionary; it was evolutionary. The accolade of revolutionary would arguably be a better fit for the rival Boeing 737 family. However, the A320 was designed around two decades after the 737, allowing it to be more modern. For example, the cabin is around seven inches wider (18 cm), and the landing gear is higher, allowing it to more easily accommodate newer, larger engines.

Despite the 20-year head start, sometime in 2025 the A320 family overtook the Boeing 737 in cumulative deliveries to become the most delivered aircraft in history. Due in part to the MAX crisis, the A320 has been outselling and outproducing the 737 for years. There are over 7,000 A320 family narrowbodies on order (around 5,300 of which are A321neos), about 2,600 more than Boeing’s backlog of 4,400 Boeing 737s.

The humble A320 family (with its later A320neo and A321neo variants) is one of the twin backbones of global short-haul aviation (with the 737), enabling the rise of low-cost and ultra-low-cost airlines. Famously, an A320-family narrowbody takes off somewhere in the world every two seconds. The A320 was Airbus’s first fly-by-wire airliner and the world’s first digital airliner to achieve financial success.

Airbus A330

Entered service in 1994

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It can be argued that the A300 was the only “revolutionary” aircraft Airbus developed, at least in terms of its lasting impact on the aviation market. By comparison, the A330 medium-haul widebody was an evolutionary improvement, although an important one. The medium-sized twin-engined A330 entered a world that already included the A300/A310 and the Boeing 767.

The A330 became one of the most popular widebody airliners in history, with over 1,650 built as of 2026 (including the upgraded A330neo). The extended A330 family also includes the quad-engined A340 family. Airbus built the A340 as a hedge due to concerns about ETOPS, but engine improvements largely made quadjets unnecessary, and fewer than 400 were sold by the time Airbus canceled it in 2012. The A330 was further confirmation that the future of medium-sized widebody airliners was twin engines.

The aircraft also had the range to efficiently service routes in the 4,000 to 8,000 nautical mile range. This allowed airlines to economically operate routes too thin for larger aircraft (e.g., 747s) that had previously been the only aircraft able to serve them. In 2018, Airbus built on its A330 success by introducing the A330neo with 14% better fuel efficiency, designed to be able to compete with smaller 787 variants. That said, part of its ability to compete stems from limited production capacity and long 787 wait times. Notably, Airbus built two A330neo variants, the A330-900 and A330-800; the A330-800 proved a dismal failure, while the A330-900 is a success.

Airbus A380

Entered service in 2007

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While Airbus overall is one of the world’s largest aviation success stories, with its aircraft being part of that success narrative, this is not true of every aircraft. The Airbus A380 Superjumbo is the largest commercial aircraft to enter service, and instead of being a leader of a new age of ultra-large-widebody aircraft, it symbolizes the end of it. Airbus embarked on the A380 program in the 1990s and 2000s to take on Boeing’s dominance in the ultra-large airliner market that it had dominated since the 747 entered service.

At the time, Airbus believed the world would require at least 1,500 ultra-widebody aircraft. Boeing responded by upgrading its Boeing 747-400 to the final Boeing 747-8 variant. But both were disappointments. Boeing only sold 155 Boeing 747-8 (only 36 of which were commercial passenger jets), and Airbus sold 251 A380-800s. Airbus did displace the 747-8, but found it was left with a market that no longer existed.

Airbus scrapped plans for the stretched A380-900 and was forced to accept a loss on the roughly $25 billion program. Instead, the industry turned from the A380 and 747 to the smaller and more efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350. The A350 could be listed here instead of the A380, given its influence on the economics of air travel. However, it isn’t, as the Boeing 787 deserves recognition over the A350 for being the first modern composite material-heavy, long-range, ultra-efficient, medium-sized twin-engined widebody. The A350 was a reaction to the Dreamliner.

Airbus A321XLR

Entered service in 2024

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Boeing once dominated or had a powerful presence in the 100-seat regional airline market (Boeing 717) and the mid-sized market (Boeing 757). However, within two years, Boeing abandoned both of these markets. Airbus has since moved in to fill them. Like the regional market, the mid-sized market is somewhat niche compared with the narrowbody market, which is the bread and butter of both Airbus and Boeing. After the commercial aviation slump that followed the 2001 attacks, demand for the mid-sized Boeing 757 collapsed, and Boeing terminated the program in 2004.

For two decades, the mid-sized market sat unfilled with a gap between the A321/737s and larger A330s/767/787s. As the 1,000-strong Boeing 757 fleet aged, the demand for a replacement rose. Boeing has explored developing its New Midsize Airplane (dubbed the Boeing 797), but this doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere. The MAX crisis and financial struggles, together with 777X certification delays and 787 quality concerns, compelled Boeing to prioritize the aircraft it had.

This allowed Airbus to step in and develop the A321XLR. While not a perfect fit, the aircraft is large enough and has the range (advertised 4,700 nautical miles) to largely fill the mid-sized market. This is enough to replace the Boeing 757 on transatlantic routes and open up many other new routes for other airlines around the world (e.g., Australian routes to Pacific islands). The smaller size of the A321XLR allows medium-haul, comparatively thin routes to become economically viable that aren’t with widebody aircraft.

Airbus A220

Entered service in 2016 (as Bombardier CSeries)

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This final example is different from the rest as it was not developed by Airbus. The Airbus A220 regional airliner was developed by Canada’s Bombardier as a next-generation five-abreast regional aircraft. The fortuitous investment by Delta Air Lines in 2016 during development was central to Bombardier’s ability to complete the aircraft development and secure airline confidence to attract a significant number of orders. However, the massive costs of developing it still strained Bombardier to the breaking point, forcing it to sell the aircraft to Airbus in 2018.

Bombardier then divested its other commercial aircraft programs (Bombardier CRJ and Bombardier Q-Series) and contracted to focus on its business jet fleet. Airbus has continued production in Canada, although it inherited anti-dumping lawsuits that saw it open up a facility in Alabama. Today, the A220 occupies an interesting position in a somewhat niche regional segment. It is also operating in a market segment where Boeing has no competitor.

Boeing inherited the McDonnell Douglas MD-95 series and continued to produce it for a while as the Boeing 717 regional airliner, but after that ended in 2006, Boeing effectively left the market. Its main competitor is the Brazilian Embraer E-Jet series, meaning that this is the only market segment where Airbus’s closest direct competitor is Embraer, not Boeing. Compared with the aircraft it replaces, the A220 is around 25% more fuel efficient and is notable for its spacious cabin and overhead lockers. The A220 is generally considered a regional airliner, although it also overlaps with shorter variants of the A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX narrowbody airliners.