Airbus’s small jet bet gives it a big edge on Boeing

After a year reeling from the pandemic, one of the world’s most lucrative aviation markets is braced for further disruption. JetBlue, one of the most successful US low-cost carriers, is making its transatlantic debut this summer.  But it is the plane — a single-aisle Airbus on routes that are dominated by large, twin-aisle planes — that may have ramifications just as profound for the aviation industry as the carrier’s low-cost business model. The New York-based airline is launching its assault with the Airbus 321LR, a long-range version of a plane best-known as a workhorse for short-haul services such as those between London and Frankfurt. The model is just one of Airbus’s A320 family of jets, whose success has given the Toulouse-based company a 60% share in the single-aisle market and the upper hand over fierce rival Boeing. After the worst year in decades for airlines — and with a return to pre-pandemic travel, particularly among business customers, far from clear — the market for cheaper, nimbler single-aisle planes is now the hottest in the aviation industry. “The recovery will be led on the short-haul part of the business, on the narrow-body side,” said Aengus Kelly, CEof leasing company AerCap, one of the world’s biggest purchasers of aircraft. The A321 can fly 4,000 nautical miles, several hundred further than a normal short haul Airbus. Boeing does not yet have a plane to match it.<br/>