Flight Friday: Airbus Leads Narrowbodies, Boeing Dominates Widebodies

Recent talk within the aviation community has been about the performance of Airbus and Boeing with respect to their 2025 delivery and orderbook numbers. 

Another way to look at the two biggest commercial aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is by how many annualized flights were completed by the OEMs' aircraft. Therefore, this week's Flight Friday takes the opportunity to look at how many flights Airbus and Boeing aircraft have made in recent years.

For several years, the Airbus narrowbody fleet has been flying more flights than the Boeing fleet. However, it’s only since 2022 that Airbus has had a larger in-service fleet (ISF) than Boeing, although the fleets were very similar in 2019 due to the MAX grounding. 

With the A320 family now the most delivered commercial aircraft program, surpassing the 737 program in late 2025, this gap will continue to grow.

The widebody market, however, is a very different situation. The Boeing widebody fleet is over 60% greater than that of Airbus. This larger fleet size is also reflected in the number of aggregated flights, with more than 60% more annual flights over recent years. 

Boeing will look to remain dominant in this area with a higher ISF, and a strong widebody orderbook. When the 777-9 is certified, currently penciled in for 2026 but with a likely in-service date in 2027, this will strengthen Boeing’s grip on the widebody utilization market.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.