What Are The Hourly Operating Costs Of The Airbus A320 Family’s Variants?

The Airbus A320 family, particularly the A320, is one of commercial aviation’s most popular narrowbody jets. Since the aircraft family’s inception in the 1980s, Airbus has delivered over 11,000 aircraft across all variants. The aircraft has a hefty price tag, costing tens of millions.

Operators have to bear capital costs in addition to operational costs, which run into the tens of thousands per hour. The Aircraft Cost Calculator (ACC) uses a baseline of 450-650 annual flying hours to break down the operating costs of various aircraft types. However, it is worth mentioning that most airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, use jets much longer than the baseline hours.

Higher usage may lower the hourly operating costs, but it will incur greater maintenance costs. Simple Flying delves deeper into the operational cost estimation of various jets in the Airbus A320 family.

The A318 and A319

The smallest member of the Airbus family is the A318, which can seat 110 to 132 passengers in a packed configuration. If flown 1,095 hours a year (three hours a day on average), the operating costs will be just over $9 million, totaling $8,250 per hour. This includes fixed costs like the plane and variable costs like crewing, jet fuel, and maintenance checks. The A318 wasn’t especially popular, and Airbus only produced 80 examples.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

While the A318 has seen less popularity with airlines, the same cannot be said about the A319, a mainstay in global fleets. Depending on its exact configuration, the aircraft can seat anywhere from 125 to 156 passengers in a commercial layout and has a range of 4,300 miles (6,920 km). Flying this plane for a year would cost $8.65 million, totaling $7,900 per hour.

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The A320 and A321

The standard A320 is one of the most popular narrowbodies in the world, with thousands already in service in a diverse array of countries worldwide. However, flying one is not cheap, with a new plane costing $101 million. That being said, it is useful to remember that airlines pay less than the list price when ordering large quantities, to the extent that Airbus scrapped list prices in 2019.

The A320 can seat 140 to 180 passengers depending on the configuration, making it a favorite for full-service, low-cost, and hybrid carriers. According to ACC, flying the jet for 1,095 hours every year would cost an operator $11.8 million, which comes out to a price of $10,800 per hour.

Photo: Airbus

Going slightly larger, the stretched-fuselage Airbus A321-200 model typically seats between 170 and 220 passengers in the most relaxed and highest-density configurations respectively. An annual 1,095 hours on the A321 would set back operators $12.15 million every year, or $11,100 per hour. This is a hefty price tag but somewhat offset because it can fly far with many travelers onboard.

Other variants

There are more niche versions of the A320 family to consider as well, such as the ACJ320neo (Airbus Corporate Jet). Seating 19 passengers in VIP comfort, this jet can fly over 6,000 nautical miles (changes depending on the chosen layout).

An annual 1,095 hours on this private jet cost $8.1 million, or a (relatively) reasonable $7,400 per hour, given how long-haul flying is possible. However, these luxurious twinjets are typically the domain of big businesses or the rich and famous, with most regular travelers sadly never able to experience their comfort. Nonetheless, you can see an example of the type pictured below.

Photo: Airbus

Each airline has a different deal

While per-hour costs help understand how much jets cost to fly privately, airlines may have varying costs for their planes. This is down to factors such as the price of each lease or purchased aircraft, crewing costs, and other variable charges. These numbers are also closely guarded, meaning it is hard to tell exactly how much each airline pays to fly its planes every hour.

Airbus provides a wide range of solutions to minimize operating costs, particularly those related to fuel efficiency in flight. Some of these solutions include:

• Descent Profile Optimization (DPO): A quick upgrade program performed in less than four hours and can typically save 75kg of fuel per descent. A fuel-saving software upgrade for the A320ceo Family and A330ceo aircraft.
• IDLE Factor Optimizer (IFO): The aircraft specific Idle Factor is recomputed and ingested into the Flight Management System (FMS) to minimize the use of airbrakes and thrust increase in descent.
• Single Engine Taxi Without APU (SETWA): Installed on the aircraft within hours, enabling savings of up to 91t of fuel per aircraft per year.

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Which of these variants of the Airbus A320 have you traveled with? How much do you think these aircraft cost to fly per hour? Were you correct in your estimations? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.