page_title: Airbus A320neo family
section_title: Early operations
hierarchical_section_title: Airbus A320neo family / Development / Early operations
caption_attribution_description: D-AINM Lufthansa A320neo FRA "Freising"
context_page_description: The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body jet-airliners produced by Airbus.
  Launched on 1 December 2010, it made its first flight on 25 September 2014 and it was introduced by Lufthansa on 25 January 2016.
  Re-engined with CFM LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines and fitted with sharklets as standard, it is 15% to 20% more fuel efficient than the A320ceo family.
  The A320neo family is based on the previous A319, A320 and A321.
  As of January 2020, a total of 7,395 A320neo family aircraft had been ordered by more than 115 airlines, making it the fastest selling commercial aircraft ever.
context_section_description: By January 2019, three years after its introduction, 585 neos were in commercial service with over 60 operators, led by IndiGo (87), Frontier Airlines (33) and China Southern (26).
  Lufthansa confirms the PW 16% fuel savings, 21% per seat with denser 180-seat layout up from 168, while Avianca states its LEAPs are 15-20% more efficient, quieter, reduce oil consumption and routine maintenance.
  Starting both GTFs initially took 6-7 min up from the A320ceo's 2 min, improving to 2-3 min by late 2017, still longer than the ceo.
  LEAP production bottlenecks led to early delivery delays, with no significant repercussions at Avianca or AirAsia; AirAsia's dispatch reliability is comparable to its ceos.
  Engine vibration affects one GTF in 50, leading to premature replacement, but spare engine pools compete with new production: at Lufthansa, dispatch reliability has remained stagnant since service entry and is below its 99.8% goal, with a utilization rate 20% below its ceos.
  P&W cites a 99.91% dispatch reliability for GTF-powered neos, higher than other new engine introductions, while Airbus reports a 99.6% dispatch reliability.
  With engine deliveries resuming, there were expected to be fewer than 10 engine-less neos at the end of 2018;  Airbus is on track to reach its target rate of 60 deliveries per month by mid-2019.
  Of the 6,362 orders, 2,456 are for CFM LEAP engines (38.6%), 1,869 for Pratt & Whitney GTFs (29.4%), and 2,037 for an as-yet unspecified engine choice (32%).
  By 30 June 2019, Safran claimed the Leap has a 61% market share on the A320neo family, with 44 airlines operating 454 Leap powered aircraft having accumulated 3.3 million flight hours.
  In July 2019, Airbus disclosed two outwardly similar, though separate, issues which could result in excessive pitch up behaviour, one affecting the A320neo and the other the A321neo. Both issues were detected during analysis and laboratory testing, and have not been encountered in actual operation. Airbus has addressed the issues through temporary revisions to the flight manual, including loading recommendations and a change to the centre-of-gravity envelope, and will release updated flight control software in 2020.
  As Lufthansa waits for the 2020 flight software update, it blocked the last row of its aft-heavy layout of 180, offering only 174 seats.
caption: Lufthansa confirms the 16% fuel savings but had to block the last seating row due to centre-of-gravity concerns
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