I was wondering this the other day and I would think naturally that the A320, not because i’m pro Airbus. The 737 is American made and you know how we are as far as fuel burning. Did the Europeans always have a cleaner more efficiant plane? Plus I think it’s more quiet than the 737.
Fuel efficiency can be broken down to many different levels. You can have just a straight pounds per hour at normal cruise, and one airplane may be better than another. But then you can factor it down to seat miles based on the number of passengers each plane can carry, and then the other plane may come out ahead (or possibly not). And there are many different variations of the 737. The A320 MAY come out better than the 737-200, but may not even come close to the efficiency of a 737-900.
If you visit each manufacturer’s Web site, you could check the specifications for the various models, do some math and figure out which ones are more efficient.
Yeah, there are a lot of variables involved in “fuel economy.” Plus, there are a lot of options available for each aircraft.
Long Answer:
I heard somewhere that the A320 gets “slightly” better fuel mileage than a “standard” 73G. Most of the 73Gs now have winglets, which pushes their range well beyond that of the A320, but do they carry more fuel to begin with? Again, it depends on the carrier and their options. It gets confusing and downright complicated, even before you factor in the weather and other variables. I’ll go ahead and say that the overall economics of the 73G are better on transcons with a strong jet stream, as jetBlue’s A320s, for example, are forced to make fuel stops along the way, whereas I never heard a thing about any 737s having to make such stops going E-W.
Short Answer:
I would venture to say a 737 w/ winglets is a little more fuel efficient than an A320, but not by a large margin.
BTW: Now, Airbus is fitting A320s w/ winglets (at the request of jetBlue), so that should shake the numbers up even more…
Nothing like a nice, well-thought out, educated reply to piss your credibility away…[and, for the record, I *do prefer Boeing to Airbus, but that’s a pretty blatant and simplistic comment].
I don’t know I prefer Airbus 320’s over a Boeing 737. I like there looks and sounds the sound on the Airbus reminds me of a C-5 how it has a hum to it. Plus the different look that the Airbus has with the winglets.
Gliders: they are so quiet the air doesn’t know they are around
Pigs: End up in being elected to Federal, state, and local governments or working for Comcast management