A318

The Airbus A318 is the smallest member of the Airbus A320 family, a line of single-aisle airliners built by Airbus. It was developed to provide the efficiency and commonality of the A320 family in a lower-demand, short- to medium-range configuration.

Design and features: The A318 retains the two-crew cockpit and fly-by-wire controls that are characteristic of the A320 family and shares many airframe systems, wings, and tail with its siblings. It is a shortened variant of the A320, delivering a reduced fuselage length while maintaining the same overall design philosophy and performance characteristics. Typical seating ranges from about 107 to 132 passengers, depending on configuration. The A318 uses engine options available for the A320 family, such as the CFM56-5B or IAE V2500, giving it comparable reliability and maintainability to other A320 models.

Operational use: The A318 was produced in smaller numbers than other A320 family aircraft and saw service with a limited set of airlines. It is generally deployed on routes with thinner demand or higher-frequency operations where a larger A320 would be less economical, offering the efficiency of the A320 family on smaller markets.

Variants: The main production variant is the A318-100. There were no widely adopted stretched or higher-capacity versions of the A318.

See also: Airbus A320 family.