30 years of the A319 passenger aircraft

August 25 marked the 30th anniversary of the A319 passenger aircraft, created by the European aerospace corporation Airbus. On that day in 1995, its first model took to the skies.

The A319 belongs to the A320 family of airliners and was the smallest of them at the time of its creation. The fuselage of the aircraft was shortened by 3.73 m by removing four bulkheads at the front and three at the rear of the wing. With almost the same fuel capacity as the A320-200, but fewer passengers, the flight range increased by almost 12%. The developers positioned the A319 as a direct competitor to its American “classmates” Boeing 737-300/-700.

Thanks to the high degree of design and system continuity with previous aircraft in the family, the new airliner quickly passed testing and received European type certification in April 1996. Serial production was established through traditional Airbus intergovernmental cooperation and continues to this day. The aircraft are assembled at a plant in Hamburg, Germany, and at the FAL Asia joint venture in Tianjin, China. As of May 2025, 1,516 units have been built in four basic variants and five militarized versions, including the A319 OH surveillance aircraft.

The basic A319 variant is designed to carry 124 passengers in a two-class configuration. The aircraft are equipped with two CFM56-5 or IAE V2500-A5 turbofan engines with a thrust of up to 13.5 tons. The aircraft is 33.84 m long, has a wingspan of 35.8 m, a maximum take-off weight of 75.5 t, a maximum speed of 871 km/h, and a practical range of over 6,900 km.

Thanks to its high economic performance, reliability, and well-established sales and service system, the A319 has become popular around the world. These airliners have been used by operators in more than 70 countries, including Australia, Argentina, Afghanistan, Great Britain, Egypt, India, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, France, and Japan. In our country, the first to operate the A319 was the State Aviation Enterprise Ukraine, which provides air transportation for senior state officials. In addition, shortly before the large-scale Russian invasion, such an airliner entered the fleet of the young company Jonika Airlines.