He A320 It is not just a recognizable aircraft in any European airport. It is one of those platforms that have ended up defining how we fly: short routes, medium distances, low-cost companies, traditional airlines and a huge part of the global single aisle business. That is why his replacement cannot be read as another catalog update. What Airbus is preparing points to a long-range industrial decision: start defining now the aircraft that should take over the baton in the next decade.
In an interview with Aviation WeekGuillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus, talks about a two-stage roadmap. First would be 2030, proposed as the moment to give the green light to eAction, the internal name of the project, and open the decisive phase of the program. Then came the entry into service, located in the second half of the 1930s. We are not facing an immediate replacement, but rather a transition that will last years.
The plane that should replace an emblem
For now, the work moves in a preliminary phase, more technical than visible. Airbus talks about research, development, simulations and studies with partners to review options in wings, fuselage, propulsion and industrial systems. There is no definitive configuration nor a closed list of characteristics, and that forces each element to be treated as part of a still open process. In this initial kitchen, precisely, a good part of everything that will come later is played out.
The figures explain why the handover will be so delicate. The A320 family accumulates 20,169 total orders, 12,670 deliveries and 11,374 aircraft in service, in addition to a pending portfolio of 7,499 units. Within that volume, the A321neo weighs increasingly more, with 5,615 aircraft still to be delivered. The European manufacturer is also working to approach a production rate of up to 75 units per month by the end of 2027, supported by ten final assembly lines distributed between Hamburg, Toulouse, Mobile and Tianjin.
With such an industrial load, the change would have to be more like a gradual transition than an immediate replacement. The company itself assumes that the A320 will remain attractive for a long time, even when the new aircraft begins to reach airlines. This will force us to adjust for years the decrease in production of one family and the increase of the other, without breaking deliveries or further straining a supply chain that is already coming from difficult years. The precedent of the overlap between the A320ceo and the A320neo helps to understand the scale of the move.
In parallel, Airbus continues to define which technologies should shape this new generation. The company has previously noted that a future single-aisle aircraft could improve efficiency by 20% to 30% compared to current models and operate with up to 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Among the options it is studying also include more efficient engines, a possible open fan architecture, longer wings with folding tips, lighter materials and more connected on-board systems.
The planning also gives a glimpse of how Airbus interprets the moment the market is experiencing. After Kelly Ortberg suggested that the schedule for Boeing’s next plane could be moved, the CEO defended that the priority is not to react to the competition, but to take advantage of the company’s position to decide when to launch its next program. That strategy also seeks to concentrate engineering, investment and supplier resources around the project when the time comes.
That’s why 2030 works as a departure date, not an arrival date. If Airbus maintains the schedule, that year would serve to formally activate the program that should bring the successor to the A320 to airlines in the second half of the 1930s. Until then, several decisions will remain to be finalized. The internal name is already on the table: eAction. What is missing is for the program that can mark the next exit in the single aisle to end up materializing.
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