Airbus A310

The A310 traces back to the A300 itself. That first twin-engine wide-body sold reasonably well — 561 aircraft delivered over its production life — but as it entered service it became clear that there was also a sizeable market for something smaller: some operators lacked the traffic to justify the A300, while others wanted more frequency even at a higher seat-distance cost, notably Swissair and Lufthansa. At the same time Airbus was under pressure to prove it was more than a single-aircraft manufacturer. The consortium revisited early design studies from the A300 programme and concentrated on the option known as the A300B10MC — minimum change — with capacity cut to a maximum of 220 passengers.

The programme was caught up in European industrial politics. The United Kingdom had withdrawn from the A300 project on 10 April 1969, and by the late 1970s British inflation, running at around 35 per cent during 1979–80, was pushing development costs up. Hawker Siddeley, the A300 wing subcontractor, merged with three other British firms in 1977 to form British Aerospace. At the 1978 Farnborough Air Show, British Secretary of State for Industry Eric Varley announced that BAe would rejoin Airbus Industrie as a full partner from 1 January 1979, taking a 20 per cent shareholding and a full part in the development and manufacture of the A310. Swissair and Lufthansa had drawn up a joint specification on 9 June 1978; Swissair became the first airline to place a firm order, for ten aircraft with ten more on option, and Lufthansa followed with a $240 million ten-aircraft order. On 7 July 1978 Airbus decided to put the A310 into production.

Two versions were planned at first, the regional A310-100 and the transcontinental A310-200, but weak demand for the former led Airbus to stop offering it during 1979, and none were ever built. When the -200 prototype flew on 3 April 1982 the type had already accumulated orders and options for 181 aircraft from fifteen airlines worldwide, a better start than the A300 itself. Swissair became the launch operator in April 1983. In 1988 an A310 delivered to Interflug became the first Airbus for an Eastern-bloc airline.

Demand began to slacken in the early 1990s and no new passenger orders were placed in the late 1990s, partly because of the newer A330. The final delivery was made on 15 June 1998 to Uzbekistan Airways; between 1983 and 1998, 255 A310s were delivered. Production of the A310 and the A300 ceased during July 2007. Together the two types established Airbus as a competitor to Boeing and let it press on with the A320 and A330/A340 families.