Air France operated the first scheduled passenger service with the Airbus A320 in 1988.
The aircraft entered airline service on 18 April 1988, when Air France used it on a route from Paris to Berlin. The A320 was Airbus’s first narrow-body aircraft and introduced digital fly-by-wire flight controls to a commercial airliner of its size. It also used a side-stick controller rather than traditional control columns.
The A320 family was designed to compete with aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80. Its common cockpit and related systems later allowed pilots to move among several Airbus models with reduced additional training. The family eventually expanded to include the shorter A318, longer A321, and intermediate A319.
Air France was the launch operator, but Airbus itself assembled aircraft for customers in several countries. The A320’s entry into service helped establish Airbus as a major competitor in the global narrow-body market. The first service is sometimes confused with the first flight of the A320 prototype, which occurred in 1987.