Airbus lists an A320 at $101,000,000, and almost nobody pays that. The number worth knowing is a different one. Airbus has delivered 12,900 aircraft of the A320 family and still owes airlines 7,535 more.
That makes the A320 less a single aircraft than a product line. It runs from the little A318 to the stretched A321, in an older engine version and a newer one, and the price, the fleet and the hourly bill change with every step. On the US register alone there are 2,055 of them, and the biggest group isn't the A320. It's the A321, with 929.
This page starts at the list price and works toward the running bill. It covers the A318, A319, A320 and A321 as one family, because that's how Airbus counts them. The Airbus cost guide covers the wider range, including the long-haul aircraft. The rival narrow-body from Boeing has its own page, the Boeing 737 cost guide, and the commercial plane cost guide covers the whole airline fleet, including regional jets.
Data used: FAA registry through 2026-10-12; NTSB files through 2026-09-30. Source periods are shown with each table.
What an A320 lists at, and what that leaves out
Airbus publishes a table of average list prices by model. The edition we could verify is 2018, so every price in this section is a 2018 list price and says so. It prices seven members of the family, and a newer table would replace these figures.
Average list prices from the 2018 table. The gold bar is the A320. These aren't prices paid.
The cheapest member of the family, the A318, lists at $77,400,000. The A321neo at the top lists at $129,500,000, which is 1.7 times as much and $52,100,000 more. Along the way the A319 sits at $92,300,000, the A320 at $101,000,000 and the A321 at $118,300,000.
Same airframe, newer engines
The table prices the family in two engine generations. The A320neo lists $9,600,000 above the A320, and the A321neo lists $11,200,000 above the A321. In both sizes the newer engines add to the list price. The neo is now where the family is heading: 37% of all A320 family deliveries are neos, and 99.9% of the unfilled orders are.
- A318$77,400,000The lowest price in the table
- A319$92,300,000Older engine option
- A320$101,000,000Older engine option
- A321$118,300,000Older engine option
- A319neo$101,500,000New engine option
- A320neo$110,600,000New engine option
- A321neo$129,500,000New engine option, the highest price in the family
One type certificate, a long way between the lightest and the heaviest
The FAA approves every model in the family on a single type certificate data sheet. That sheet lists the certified maximum takeoff weight for each model. The lightest A318 is certified at 142,197 pounds. The A320 variants sit in the middle, at 171,958 pounds for the A320-214. The heaviest A321 weight on the sheet is 222,667 pounds, which is 80,470 pounds more than the A318.
One model of each size, not every variant. Maximum takeoff weight is a certified limit, not a typical operating weight.
That spread is why one name covers so much money. The newest A321 weights were approved in 2024 and again in 2025. That's decades after the first A320 certificates, and the family is still growing at the top.
Who flies them: the FAA register
The FAA register holds 2,055 registrations for the A320 family, and it marks 2,050 of them valid. The other 5 carry a different status. The register covers aircraft with US registration only, so it's a slice of the world fleet, not the whole of it, and it doesn't say whether an aircraft is flying today. For the other types of aircraft that fly in the United States, see the types of planes guide.
The A318 has no US registrations.
The A321 leads, with 929 registrations or 45.2% of the register. The A320 follows at 798 and the A319 at 328. The single most common model label is the A321-271NX, with 324 registrations, followed by the A320-232 at 299 and the A321-231 at 279.
- 1651990s
- 4912000s
- 7442010s
- 5282020s
127 records have a blank or invalid build year and are left out of the chart.
744 of these aircraft were built in the 2010s and 528 in the 2020s so far. Together that's 66% of the registrations with a usable build year. The oldest registered airframe dates from 1991.
By registrant type, corporations hold 91.7% of the registrations and LLCs hold 8.0%. The register lists Utah as the registration address for 31.6% of them, more than any other state, with Georgia and Texas next. That's where the paperwork is filed, not where the aircraft fly.
Download the fleet CSV by model and build year. Free to use, please link back. It counts all registrations and valid ones by model label and build year, including blank years, and contains no personal records.
Show the registered-aircraft table
| Family | All registration statuses | Valid registrations |
|---|---|---|
| A318 | 0 | 0 |
| A319 | 328 | 328 |
| A320 | 798 | 795 |
| A321 | 929 | 927 |
| Total | 2,055 | 2,050 |
FAA registry through 2026-10-12. Registration is not proof of active airline service.
Delivered, in the fleet, and still to build
The FAA register stops at the US border, so the world picture comes from Airbus itself. Its orders and deliveries table, dated September 2026, gives three numbers for each model: aircraft delivered, aircraft Airbus counts as in its fleet, and orders not yet delivered.
Deliveries aren't aircraft in service. They include every aircraft handed over, whether it is still flying or not.
The original A320 is still the biggest single model, at 4,752 delivered. The A320neo has 2,492 and the A321neo 2,263, and the A321neo is the one still gathering pace. The A321ceo stopped at 1,784, the A319ceo at 1,484 and the A318 at 80. The A319neo is a footnote at 45.
The in-fleet column shows how far the delivery count sits above the aircraft Airbus still counts. Across the family, 12,900 delivered and 11,374 in fleet leaves a gap of 1,526. The older A320ceo shows 3,903 in fleet.
The order book looks forward. Airbus has 7,535 unfilled orders for the family, and 5,656 of them are for the A321neo alone. The A320neo has 1,860, and the A319neo has 13. Since launch, the A321neo has taken 7,919 orders, so more than two-thirds of its orders are still to be delivered.
What an airline spends per hour in the air
Airlines in the United States report their direct operating costs to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, aircraft type by aircraft type. For 2025 the Form 41 Schedule P-5.2 data give a cost for every airborne hour, which is the time from wheels up to wheels down.
Across 8 carriers the A320 family flew 1,559,180 airborne hours and reported $6,453 of direct operating expense for each one. The A319 reported $5,819 and the A321 $6,501. The A321 costs $682 more per hour than the A319.
Direct operating expense as US airlines report it. An average across carriers and seating layouts, not a price list or a lease rate.
Fuel is about a third of the bill. The A320 family burned 914 US gallons per airborne hour, the A319 884 and the A321 863. The A321 costs the most per hour but burns the least fuel per hour of the three. These are averages across different carriers and engine mixes, so the gap isn't a like-for-like comparison.
What the accident files record
The NTSB file lists 126 accidents involving A320 family aircraft between 2000 and 2025. Of those, 11 were fatal, and the fatal events reported 1,311 deaths in total. That figure covers everyone killed in those events, including people on other aircraft and on the ground.
The A318 has no records. Each record belongs to the type named in the NTSB file.
The phase of flight tells a different story from the type. Of the 126 records, 45 began en route, against 16 in landing, 14 on approach and 12 while taxiing. The file counts the first phase coded for each event, and it doesn't say what went wrong in it.
The six largest phases. The rest, and records with no coded phase, are in the NTSB table below.
Show the NTSB tables
| Aircraft | Accidents | Fatal accidents | Reported event deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| A318 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A319 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
| A320 | 65 | 9 | 930 |
| A321 | 30 | 2 | 381 |
| One event with included aircraft in different families | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 126 | 11 | 1,311 |
2000 to 2025. US-focused NTSB records, including some foreign events where NTSB took part. These are not worldwide totals. Counts never establish rates or safety rankings. Reported deaths include other aircraft and ground deaths in a collision. Different families in one event have a separate row.
Worldwide hull-loss counts for the A320 family aren't published in a source this page uses. Boeing's statistical summary covers the worldwide commercial jet fleet, and it's on the Boeing costs page with its scope and its limits. For a bigger step up in price, the private jet cost guide covers business jets.
Questions people ask
How much does a new Airbus A320 cost?
Airbus's 2018 average list price table puts the A320 at $101,000,000 and the A320neo at $110,600,000. Those are list prices. Airlines negotiate, and the prices they pay are not public.
How much does an Airbus A321neo cost?
The 2018 table lists the A321neo at $129,500,000, the highest price in the A320 family. It's a list price, not what an airline pays.
How much does it cost to fly an Airbus A320 for an hour?
US airlines reported $6,453 of direct operating expense per airborne hour for the A320 family in 2025. That's an average, and it adds no lease rates or overhead.
How many Airbus A320s are there?
Airbus has delivered 12,900 aircraft of the A320 family and counts 11,374 of them in its fleet. The FAA register holds 2,055 of them, which covers US-registered aircraft only.
What is the difference between an A320 and an A321?
The A321 is the longer aircraft. In the 2018 table the A321 lists at $118,300,000 against $101,000,000 for the A320, and the FAA lists a heavier maximum takeoff weight for it.
Is the A321 more common than the A320 in the United States?
On the FAA register, yes: 929 registrations against 798. Worldwide the A320 family delivered 12,900 aircraft in all, and the register covers US-registered aircraft only.
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Sources and how the numbers were made
- Federal Aviation Administration. Releasable Aircraft Database. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The registry supplies fleet counts by model, build year, registrant type and state.
- Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration Database Description. Retrieved 2026-10-13. This document explains registration status and registrant-type codes.
- Federal Aviation Administration. Type Certificate Data Sheet A28NM. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The FAA sheet supplies certified approval dates, engines, thrust and weights for the covered models.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident data: avall. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The records from 2008 onward supply the NTSB counts.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Historical aviation accident data: Pre2008. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The earlier records supply the years 2000 to 2007.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database data dictionary. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The data dictionary defines the injury and event codes.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident data download directory. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The download directory lists the published files and their dates.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database release notes. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The release notes describe what each file contains.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database search help. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The search help explains how the NTSB selects and labels records.
- National Transportation Safety Board. Aviation accident database scope. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The scope note states that the database is US-focused and which events it covers.
- Federal Aviation Administration. General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey. Retrieved 2026-10-13. The survey is cited to explain why no accident rates are given.
- Airbus. 2018 average list prices. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The table supplies the 2018 Airbus average list prices.
- Airbus. Orders, deliveries and in fleet, Worldwide, Summary to 30 Sep 2026. Retrieved 2026-10-14. Airbus's orders, deliveries and in-fleet table supplies deliveries, aircraft in fleet and unfilled orders.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Form 41 Schedule P-5.2 annual 2025. Retrieved 2026-10-14. Schedule P-5.2 supplies direct operating expense, fuel and airborne hours by aircraft type.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Aircraft type lookup. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The lookup matches BTS aircraft codes to type descriptions.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics. P-5.2 field descriptions. Retrieved 2026-10-14. The field descriptions define the P-5.2 columns.