(cnn)the a320, the aircraft involved in a crash in france on tuesday, has for several decades been a key component in the rivalry between manufacturers airbus and boeing the twin engined a320 entered service in 1988, some two decades after its single aisle rival, boeing's 737 as of march 2015, there have been a total of 11,537 orders for the a320, with 6,452 deliveries to date and slightly fewer aircraft flying globally by more than 300 operators airbus says the entire fleet has accumulated 150 million flight hours in more than 85 million flights the a320 family ranges from the smaller a318 (about 100 seats), to the upgraded a321 (about 185 to 220 passengers depending on the class configuration) the short to medium range a320 is the most popular version with a range of about 3,300 nautical miles or 6,150 kilometers it has a wingspan of 358 meters (with wing fins called sharklets), a length of 3757 meters and a maximum payload of 166 tonnes, according to airbus the aircraftflight 9525involved in tuesday's crash was operated by germanwings, a subsidiary of german flag carrier lufthansa airbus said the 150 seat aircraft, which had been flying between barcelona, spain and dusseldorf, germany, was 24 years old, having been delivered to lufthansa from its production line in 1991 it said the a320 had accumulated approximately 58,300 flight hours in 46,700 flights it was powered by cfm 56 5a1 turbofan engines, the latest versions of which are capable of delivering up to 33,000 pounds of thrust the aircraft manufacturer said it was sending a 'go team of technical advisers' to assist french authorities at the scene of the crash germanwings' fleet includes 15 active a320s, according to another database, planespottersnet the a320 200 can seat up to 180 passengers in a single class configuration the germanwings plane was carrying 150 people, including six crew members according to information from the aviation safety network accident database, there have been 55 incidents involving the a320, not including tuesday's crash in december 2014, an airbus a320 operated by airasia indonesia crashed into the java sea en route from surabaya, indonesia to singapore all 162 people on board flight qz8501 were killed 'the a320 has a fantastic safety record,' said phil seymour, the president of the international bureau of aviation 'there have been a couple of incidents, but generally speaking, they're safer than most aircraft out there now' seymour adds that at 24 years old, the aircraft involved in the crash was probably nearing the final years of its working life, but that would not affect safety 'airlines would usually consider retiring an aircraft at the 25 30 years point because maintenance costs increase beyond that 'these things fly day in and day out and are designed to go on and on airlines usually only decide to retire them because maybe there's a younger aircraft that doesn't use as much fuel and doesn't cost so much to run' the a320 is a twin engine single aisle aircraft seating 150 passengers in a standard two classes configuration the first a320 entered service in march 1988 by the end of february 2015 nearly 6,200 a320 family aircraft were in operation worldwide to date, the entire fleet has accumulated some 150 million flight hours in over 85 million flights the worst a320 incident in terms of fatalities was the 2007 crash of a tam linhas aereas plane that killed all 187 on board, plus a further 12 people on the ground when it failed to stop and went off the runway during landing in sao paulo in wet conditions in 2009, in an incident known as the 'miracle on the hudson, pilot chesley sullenberger landed a us airways a320 on the hudson river in new york when the plane lost lost power in its engines after hitting a flock of geese all on board survived cnn's barry neild contributed to this report
737 boeing airbus a320
there have been more than 11,000 orders for the airbus a320 family  the plane is the single aisle rival to boeing's 737  a320 is 'safer than most aircraft out there now,' says aviation expert 