Market Spotlight: Airbus ACJ320 family

This article is extracted from the most recent edition of The Asian Sky Quarterly.
To read the full article, please download our Asian Sky Quarterly Q1 2024 Report.

The Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) series is a family of business jets produced by Airbus in Europe. The ACJ family’s ceo and neo aircraft are derived from the highly successful A320 family of commercial airliners.

The main advantage of ACJs when compared to traditional purpose-built business jets is cabin size. Whilst the cabin size of the Long Range Jets that the ACJ320 family competes against are generally in the 2,000 to 2,500 cu ft range, the ACJ320 family range from 5,000 for the smallest of the ACJ family, right the way through to 8,000 cu ft for the largest.

With the cabins being larger, it gives owners much more choice and flexibility when it comes to what’s inside the cabin. And because of this, each ACJ is delivered without its cabin installed. Airbus does offer some standard cabin configurations, however many clients choose to work with an aircraft completion company to design a more personalized cabin, according to their unique requirements. Clients can choose from various configuration options, including living quarters, cinema rooms, dining areas, office spaces and conference rooms, etc. The larger cabin volume opens possibilities for creating different cabin sections that can be entirely closed off from the rest of the cabin, with many owners choosing to have a bedroom at the rear of the aircraft, and work / rest areas towards the front.

Airbus introduced new engines onto its A320 family in 2016, however the majority of current in service A320 family ACJs were delivered prior to this, and are unofficially suffixed ‘ceo’ meaning ‘current engine option’, rather than the newer aircraft that are officially suffixed ‘neo’ meaning ‘new engine option’.

The early ceo versions of the family are the ACJ318, ACJ319, ACJ320 and ACJ321. The ACJ319 was the most popular of the four, with only a handful of ACJ318s and ACJ320s in operation. Only one ACJ321 was ever ordered, which is currently in service with the Government of Kazakhstan.

The Airbus ACJ318, derived from the A318, is the smallest member of the ACJ family. The ACJ318 shares the same wings as the ACJ319 and ACJ320 but has a shorter fuselage, allowing for greater take-off performance. It is also the only member of the A320 family that has a different size tail – the A319, A320 and A321 share the same tail, whilst the tail of the A318 is larger. The first flight of the ACJ318 Elite occurred in January 2002, followed by a version with CFM56-5B9/P engines seven months later.

You have reached the end of the preview.
To read the full article, please download our Asian Sky Quarterly Q1 2024 Report.