Airbus Is Soaring at Boeing’s Expense
The European aerospace giant’s A320 has become the top-selling aircraft ever. And it’s not finished yet.
In early 1987, an unusual spectacle took place on an airfield in southern France. Then-Prince Charles, perched atop a boarding staircase, gently drizzled the contents of an oversize Champagne bottle over the nose of an Airbus SE A320 jetliner, while his wife, Princess Diana, watched the proceedings with her signature bemused smile. A celebratory extravaganza of laser beams and dry ice ensued for the 1,400 attending guests—it was the ’80s, after all.
The aircraft receiving the royal christening that day needed the well wishes. Airbus had made an audacious bet by positioning its first single-aisle model, the A320, as nothing less than a frontal attack on Boeing Co. The challenge could hardly have been more formidable. When A320 deliveries began the next year, the US planemaker shipped 10 times as many 737 jets as the European upstart could muster.