We talked about the Airbus A320 NEO family a while ago, the program is already a huge success, Airbus now recorded more than a 1 000 orders for A319, A320 or A321 NEO. The summit of that recent success being the 2011 Bourget Paris Air Show, where clients like Air Asia finalized big deals.

This is now obvious that the “NEO program” is a big commercial success. Airbus has been extremely smart to decide to plan this program that early, when the world economic crisis was slowly disappearing and when new markets needs were emerging like never before. Some big careers also need to replace the getting old MDs and classic 737s and A320s, American Airlines and Delta Airlines for instance, two big players that are rumored to be discussing with Airbus and Boeing for two huge orders – more than 250 planes each. Airbus had the guts to be the first to bring a new ambitious program to the table. The company already took the risk to build the A380 and to launch the A350 program, two very ambitious but risky moves.

Boeing, on the other hand, failed to innovate and only tried to save its dominant position for years now. Although the 787 program has been a smart move, Boeing slept on its crown, living on the 777 and the 737 successes. With the A380, Boeing had to bring a new 747 version – not a perfect match to the A380, a bigger aircraft -, but the company failed, yet, to react to the 777 threat, the A350, and moreover the “NEO program”. It is now clear that the 737NGs are outdated by the future NEOs – which should be at around 15% more fuel efficient. Classic A320s and 737NGs are now doomed to a slow death, new orders will be very rare. The only savior for those programs being the NEO program’s own success, aircrafts are sold out for years, careers will have to wait a while to take delivery of NEOs now.

It is now urgent to react for Boeing, Embraer will be closely watching Boeing’s moves as well, but it is to Airbus and Boeing, the two main players, to bring innovation and to look ahead.