My first ever blog post was the 777x vs A350 and so I said; what better than to create a series out of it where I compare planes against each other to see which is better and how they could be utilized in the aviation market. So welcome to the “Aircraft head-to-head series”!

Last time we addressed the debate between the long-haul leaders in the market, so now it’s time to shift our focus to the medium-haul sector. While the big planes always get attention and fame in the aviation world, the real backbone of the majority of airlines within the world is the short to medium-capable aircraft and there are none quite as notable as the A321 NEO and the Boeing 737 MAX 8. These two planes are the newest unveilings by Boeing and Airbus to satiate the ever-growing need for medium-haul flying and specifically cheap flying. So if they were to go head to head which would come out on top?

As I am sure many of you know the NEO and MAX come from parent aircraft with the A321 and 737-8 models respectively, so it’s important to distinguish what new things both of these aircraft offer to the table. For Airbus, it is their NEO variant which stands for “New Engine Option” which offers larger more fuel-efficient engines. There are two engine types on the NEO, the P&W Pure Power, and the LEAP-1A. Similarly, Boeing also focused on a total reworking of the engines from their original 737 models electing to use the LEAP-1B turbofan engines. Both however kept a lot of the same infrastructure both in and outside of the plane to make the models more attractive to airplanes because of their low training cost. This decision would work for Airbus but would prove disastrous for Boeing. 

When Boeing created the MAX their goal was to create a plan which would be easy to make and easy to fly however with that came cut corners and costly mistakes. In the MAX, Boeing added the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) was put in place to prevent extreme climbing or descent by automatically adjusting the aircraft’s pitch. However, there was a malfunction in the MCAS system, causing a violent pitch upward. This resulted in a stall of both aircraft. This caused an Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air flight to crash in 2019. Rightfully so people ever since have been wary of the MAX and orders have shown.

If you are interested in the story about the MAX program I recommend the “Downfall” documentary on Netflix.

For Airbus this plan to “retrofit” an existing plane paid off. The original A321 was widely popular all around the globe and to date, there have been 450 orders for the plane which is phenomenal given its infancy.

Ultimately, I think the A321 NEO wins this for a few reasons. Firstly it is hard to ignore what came from the two MAX crashes early on in the program and it highlighted that Boeing was not properly making quality planes that customers trusted like they were known for doing. Also, you can’t lie about the success of the A321 NEO. Its versatile abilities have allowed it to do Transatlantic crossings, something that is only done by long-haul aircraft. I, however, will look forward to seeing how the market will pan out for both of these planes.