Competition between Airbus and Boeing

The competition between Airbus and Boeing has been characterized as a duopoly in the large jet airliner market since the 1990s. The duopoly resulted from a series of mergers within the global aerospace industry, with Airbus beginning as a pan-European consortium while the American Boeing absorbed its former arch-rival, McDonnell Douglas, in 1997. Other manufacturers, such as Lockheed Martin and Convair in the United States, and Fokker in Europe, were no longer able to compete and effectively withdrew from this market. British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) joined the consortium in 1979. In the 10 years from 2015 to 2024, Airbus received orders for 8,950 aircraft and delivered 7,043, while Boeing received net orders for 5,012 aircraft and delivered 5,312. During their period of intense competition, both companies regularly accused each other of receiving unfair state aid from their respective governments. In 2019, Airbus displaced Boeing as the largest aerospace company by revenue. In October 2019, the A320 family became the highest-selling airliner family with 15,193 orders, surpassing the Boeing 737's total of 15,136. In 2023, the number of Airbus aircraft in service surpassed Boeing for the first time. Even in the 21st century there have been attempts to challenge the duopoly. The attempt by Bombardier ended with its C-Series being acquired by Airbus and renamed the Airbus A220. Both Russia and China produce some jet airliners, mostly for the domestic market, with the Sukhoi Superjet achieving a low number of international orders prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Comac has a product similar to the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 family with the Comac C919 which has 1,005 total orders (compared to 11,179 for the A320neo family and 6,779 for the Boeing 737 MAX) on the order book, mostly from Chinese airlines.