For five decades, the Boeing 737 has been considered the best-selling civil aviation aircraft.
Boeing and Airbus sales reports show that the Airbus A320 family has officially received more orders than the Boeing 737 family, despite the fact that the 737 arrived almost 20 years earlier. The Europeans were able to wrest leadership from the American concern thanks to the development of two new models of aircraft with an increased range of flights, which turned out to be in demand against the backdrop of the rapid development of civil aviation. The problems with the Boeing 737 Max also played into the hands of Airbus.
Boeing 737 appeared in 1967. The aircraft proved remarkably successful, with over 15,000 units produced over the past decades. However, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 model introduced in 2016 brought the company some problems. In 2019, after the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, countries around the world began to suspend the operation of this aircraft. As a result, Boeing's orders dropped and this played into the hands of Airbus. The European concern began taking orders for the A320 in 1984, almost 20 years after the Boeing 737 was introduced.
At the end of October Boeing registered 15,136 orders for the Boeing 737 (all generations included). At the same time, Airbus named a slightly larger figure - 15,193 Airbus A320 orders. The gap has narrowed rapidly in recent years. So, only on the second day of the Dubai Air Show, 120 orders were immediately received for the A320 from Air Arabia from the UAE, including 20 for the A321. Boeing managed to sell only 10 of the new 737 Max. And in June, during the Paris Air Show, Airbus entered into orders for 273 A320neos, while sales of 737 Maxs were modest - 200 units.
However, there are suggestions that in the end the American company will be able to regain leadership. However, it is doubtful that this will happen in the near future.
