Airbus A320 flies past Boeing 737 as most-delivered jet in history

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/airbus-a320-flies-past-boeing-737-most-delivered-jet-history-2025-10-07/

Edited October 7, 2025Oct 7 by The Flight Level

As an American, this makes me sad. 

but credit where it’s due - Airbus makes great stuff 👍

The Airbus A320 is indeed a great airplane.  

Boeing might have stayed on top if not for the monumental screw-up with the 737 Max which spooked a lot of customers.  The Max is actually a pretty good plane, but the damage was done with the crashes.

IMO Boeing should have developed a clean sheet, brand new single-aisle replacement for the 737.  It would have cost more up front, but they could have maintained superiority in the single aisle market for years to come.  Alas, that ship has sailed.

This is what you get when you put incompetent and greedy executives in charge of a great airplane maker.

Dave

I flew on an A380 from Boston to Heathrow. Most comfortable flight ever. We flew Premium Economy and were thrilled with large seats and nice media. Also a shoutout to the British Airways cabin crew. Wonderful trip.

Even more impressive - or sad - given that the 737 family had a head start of some 20 years over the 320 family.

I agree that the B737 was a great design for the role for which it was originally intended.  I also agree that Boeing really needed to create a whole new design instead of putting the B737 on growth hormones.

Good for them. As an a "muricane". Over the years have slowly switched from Boeing to Airbus, Sim and when Traveling!

Edited October 9, 2025Oct 9 by Torkermax

6 hours ago, stans said:

I agree that the B737 was a great design for the role for which it was originally intended.  I also agree that Boeing really needed to create a whole new design instead of putting the B737 on growth hormones.

Well, the MAX’s are still doing well, and it’s theoretically possible for them to catch up again, even by evolution of the basic 737 design. It’ll come down to business deals and incentives, etc  

IMHO, their major “unforgivable” mistake was not replacing the 757 in a timely manner. A -100 (or “-90”) could fill the same role as the 321XLR, and the -200/-300’s would fit the same roles as today. More of a scaling the 57 down instead of the 37 up. 

so while the 737 is still serving its existing role very well, there’s nothing to fill the 757’s place  

 

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

MHO, their major “unforgivable” mistake was not replacing the 757 in a timely manner.

yep

17 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

IMHO, their major “unforgivable” mistake was not replacing the 757 in a timely manner.

True.  I think Boeing sort of tried with the 737 Max 10, but it's no 757.

2 hours ago, stans said:

True.  I think Boeing sort of tried with the 737 Max 10, but it's no 757.

There's been talk of a new "middle of the market" plane by Boeing for years, but it looks like they decided not to pull the trigger.

At this point, they should just make a 787-7 which would be nearly equivalent to the 757.

The Max 10 is a total waste of time and money as it only holds 10 more people than the Max 9.  Man, Boeing execs are really screwing up lately.

Dave

46 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

At this point, they should just make a 787-7 which would be nearly equivalent to the 757.

would probably not work. You can't shorten a wideboy in order to compete with single aisle long range.

shrunk derivatives usually underperform financially because they carry much of the same weight as the bigger siblings (wings, gear, engines etc) which is hurting seat-miles performance. Keep in mind the "sweet spot" for the 787 is the 9-model

interesting that you claim Boeing execs are screwing up, while yourself suggests a very questionable option, at best. You propose weight/cost of a 787 vs the capacity of an A321XLR.
 

1 hour ago, SAS443 said:

interesting that you claim Boeing execs are screwing up, while yourself suggests a very questionable option, at best. You propose weight/cost of a 787 vs the capacity of an A321XLR.

Well, I'm just throwing out options.  I didn't consider the fact that the 787 is a widebody, so trying to replace the single aisle 757 with it probably wouldn't work well. 

I'm not an expert in this field. 

I stand by my opinion that the 737 Max 10 is a waste of money.

With your clearly superior aviation knowledge, what would you propose that Boeing do next?

Dave

28 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

With your clearly superior aviation knowledge, what would you propose that Boeing do next?

I don't know. I'm not an expert in this field.

4 hours ago, dave2013 said:

There's been talk of a new "middle of the market" plane by Boeing for years, but it looks like they decided not to pull the trigger.

At this point, they should just make a 787-7 which would be nearly equivalent to the 757.

The Max 10 is a total waste of time and money as it only holds 10 more people than the Max 9.  Man, Boeing execs are really screwing up lately.

Dave

No, the 787 is significantly larger/wider than the 757. Its way closer to a 767/777, which are also 2-aisle wide bodies.

weird thing is that given all the sunk costs engineering the current Boeing line-up, a 757-class aircraft really shouldn’t be that much work to cobble together. I.e., it’s not even close to the Clean Sheet gamble that the 787 was. 

Edited October 10, 2025Oct 10 by UrgentSiesta