Airbus is on the verge of passing Boeing to hold the best selling aircraft in the history of the world. But it’s shaping up to be a photo finish.
How the Boeing 737 Became the Workhorse
Long before streaming took over your seat‑back entertainment, the Boeing 737 was already flying high. First rolled out in the late 1960s, the 737 series proved durable, adaptable and wildly popular. Boeing kept refining it—from the Classic models (‑300/‑400/‑500) to the Next‑Generation (737NG) in the late 1990s, and then the 737 MAX starting around 2017. The original fuselage and design was based on the Boeing 707, Boeing’s original super product.
By 2025, Boeing had delivered about 12,171 of these 737 jets, a milestone that made it the most‑delivered jetliner in history. The MAX variant by itself has racked up thousands of orders and deliveries, 1,923 delivered by 2025, and about 6,779 in total orders. Some of the world’s most successful airlines (Southwest, Alaska, and Ryan Air) have built their entire business model around exclusively (or nearly exclusively) utilizing the type.
Airbus A320: Matching the 737 Step for Step
Enter the Airbus A320 family. Introduced in 1987 with fly-by-wire tech that was cutting-edge back then, it’s now been updated as the A320NEO (launched in 2010, entered service in 2016) for better fuel efficiency which was a meaningful upgrade similar to the MAX but without the early incidents.
Incredibly, orders for the A320 family now hover around 19,285, with about 12,151 delivered . That’s virtually neck-and-neck with Boeing’s 12,171 deliveries of the 737 . The NEO sub‑series alone has 11,179 orders and 4,051 delivered by 2025 .
At the end of July 2025, Airbus had delivered 286 A320NEO family jets already this year, while Boeing delivered 243 MAX jets over the same period.
Order Spikes and the Tale Behind Them
What’s behind the peaks in orders over time? Fuel prices, airline growth, and new route ambitions play big roles. Airbus’s A320NEO was a hit right away. It became the fastest‑selling aircraft ever, with 1,420 orders in under a year after launch. That helped Airbus to make up some ground.
Bigger move: the A321XLR can fly farther with up to 11‑hour routes (!) with a narrow‑body plane, turning regional jets into long‑haul game-changers. For context, that enables Paris to Namibia in Southern Africa, Paris to Vancouver, or Paris to Salvador, Brazil. Combined with strategic deals like IndiGo’s massive 500‑jet A320NEO family purchase or Air India’s 470 jet haul, Airbus’s order books look like holiday toy wishlists.
Boeing had its highs too, but crashes in 2018-19 and the Max grounding dinged its reputation. Deliveries dropped to just 348 aircraft in 2024, far below Airbus’s 766. Add safety scares, the Alaska door‑plug mishap, and the FAA limiting MAX production to 38 a month, Boeing’s delivery muscle has been all but neutered. That’s not to say that those aren’t real market concerns, nor that the FAA shouldn’t have limited production to ensure safety, it should have, but it’s also not a challenge Airbus has faced in the same period.
This all excludes the effects of tariffs, of course.
Future Orders and Backlog Face-Off
What hasn’t delivered yet could tell the next chapter. As of early 2025, Airbus had a backlog of around 8,600 to 8,700 aircraft—most of them A220 or A320 family narrow‑bodies. That backlog amounts to 10-11 years worth of production based on recent building rates.
Boeing’s backlog, meanwhile, hovers around 6,200 to 6,500 planes, with about 4,700 of those consisting of 737 MAX orders.
That means Airbus is sitting on a lot more future deliveries than Boeing unless something shifts dramatically in production capability. Part of that shift is that Airbus has, in essence, built a 757 competitor that Boeing has not been willing or able to replace. Particularly for this competition, if Boeing ever releases the long awaited 797 variant that is intended to fill this middle ground with range and passenger count while remaining an efficient narrowbody, it won’t contribute to the 737/A320 race. Rather, it would almost certainly accelerate Airbus’ lead.
What Airbus’s Rise Means for the Skies
Airbus’s ascent isn’t just about numbers. It’s changed the game. Airlines are leaning into A321XLR routes, tapping thinner markets with profitable efficiency. Airbus’s fuel‑wise NEOs cost airlines less to run and make new routes viable. The 737-MAX iterations simply don’t have the range to compete.
But even Airbus’s growth has limits. Supply chains are stretched; ramping production too fast could sacrifice safety or quality, and CEO Guillaume Faury has said caution is critical.
Meanwhile, Boeing has to wrestle with rebuilding trust, ramping production again, and maybe even launching a whole new plane but that’d cost tens of billions of dollars and take a decade before it ever sees the skies. Its long-awaited adjusted 777 is already years behind schedule though it looks close to certification.
In short Airbus is winning, but can only win so much given its own constraints. The US is also competing with a conglomerate of countries, trade deals, and a larger population base (with the airlines that service them as customers and choose to buy locally.)
Conclusion
We all love an underdog story but this one’s all but over. Boeing’s 737 ruled for decades proving reliable, efficient, familiar. Airbus’s A320 matched that, then made waves with the NEO upgrades and range-stretching XLR variant.
Order volumes tell the story: Airbus comfortably leads in new bookings and backlogs, thanks to fuel savings, route flexibility and strong customer deals. Boeing’s delays and safety setbacks cost it momentum, even if its backlog remains significant.Looking ahead, Airbus is clutching a bigger future delivery pipeline; Boeing has ground to regain. Still, with production constraints and no new serious challenger on the horizon, both giants are likely to shape commercial air travel for years to come.
What do you think?
I don’t really like either of these. Boeing is using the same fuselage from the 60s. The 737 is ugly. The 737-max 9 and 10 aren’t too ugly but I hate the winglets. At lteast the body on the Max 9 and 10 are longer so it has a bit better proportions.
I like the a220 but it still has winglets.
Too bad Boeing didn’t do a whole new narrow body design instead of using the 737 for 60 years. I know the engines and avionics are new but the body should have been changed.
actually, the Cessna 172 is the best selling aircraft with over 44,000 copies built.
The A320 family is now the best selling COMMERCIAL aircraft.
There are more A321NEOs on order than for the entire MAX family.
As long as the ubiquitous “shareholders” get value every quarter, no C Suite exec cares.
A great company brought to it’s knees