Mari mengenal Airbus

So, how can you get to know and remember your aircraft types, quickly and easily? In this new series of articles, we take a look at the most popular commercial aircraft in use today and how you can spot the difference! Here is a quick beginner’s guide as to their description and how you can identify between them…
The Airbus Family

Airbus is an aircraft manufacturer based in France and produces half of the world’s commercial aircraft. It is known for its ‘fly by wire’ technology (computerized flying rather than manual) and the most popular A320 commercial aircraft as well as the new A380.

A318 - A stubby short aircraft, a shortened version of the A320 but with a tall tail! It has a single aisle and 2 engines and has arrow winglets on the wingtips. There are two main exits and one overwing exit on each side. It can hold approximately 100 passengers and can fly short to medium range flights up to 5,700 km.

A319 – The ‘baby bus’ is a slightly shortened A320. It has a single aisle and two engines and has arrow winglets on the wingtips. There are two main exits and one overwing exit on each side making it easy to identify from the A320. It can hold approximately 125 passengers and can fly short to medium range flights up to 6,650 km. The economy seat configuration is 6 seats across with the aisle through the centre.

A320 –The A320 is one of the mostly widely used commercial aircraft in the world. It is similar in size and capacity to a B737 but more modern with fly by wire technology in the cockpit. It has a single aisle and two engines. There are two main exits and two overwing exits on each side, making it easier to identify from the slightly smaller A319. It can hold up to 150-180 passengers and can fly short to medium range flights up to 6,150 km. The economy seat configuration is the same as the A319.

A321 – The A321 has a long body and is a stretched version of the A320. It has the usual single aisle, economy seat configuration of the A319 and two engines of much of the Airbus family. It has eight main exits and no overwing exits making it easier to identify. The two centre exits on each side are slightly smaller than the front and back exits. It can hold between 180-220 passengers and it suited to short or medium range flights. It can also be identified by its two four-wheeled main landing gear.

A330 – The A330 is a twin aisle wide body aircraft with two engines, making it easier to recognize from the larger A340. The economy seat configuration is usually two seats, aisle, four seats, aisle, two seats across but this depends on the airline and is suited to medium or long range flights. It can hold between 250-300 passengers depending on class seat configuration. There are four main exit doors each side of the aircraft and there are no overwing exits. Depending on the model it can travel between 7,400 and 13,430 km.

A340 – It is a long range/ultra long range aircraft with twin aisle and a similar seating configuration to the A330. It has a long body and has four main exit doors on each side of the aircraft. It has four engines and a double landing gear with four wheels, which makes it easier to identify from the A330, which looks very similar! It can hold between 260-360 passengers depending on the class configuration and has a range of 12,400 – 17,000 km.

A380 – The double decker aircraft and currently the largest passenger aircraft in use! It is wide bodied and has four engines. It can accommodate 555 passengers in a three class configuration with twin aisles and seating pattern of 10 seats across separated by two aisles in economy. If the aircraft was all economy it can provide 853 seats! There are a total of 16 exit doors. It also has a 20 wheel main landing gear. It has a flight range of 15,700 km – a distance of New York to Hong Kong for example.