The Airbus A318 is the smallest aircraft in the Airbus portfolio. First flying on 15 January 2002, it is designed to carry up to 132 passengers and is affectionately referred to in some circles as the baby bus.
Entering service with Frontier Airlines in July 2003, it is powered by either two Pratt & Whitney PW6000 or CFM56-5B turbofan engines. It is over six metres shorter than the Airbus A320 it is based on, and features a larger vertical stabiliser.
Airbus A318 Video
Following on from the last video about the Douglas DC-2, this time we head to Europe for a look at the Airbus A318. The video below runs for almost 12 minutes and is produced by the manufacturer.
Opening with footage of the aircraft’s first flight, it then moves to the production line, showing various elements being put together. This is always interesting to see, and all of it is accompanied by an inoffensive corporate music soundtrack.
The Most Famous Airbus A318 Flights
Perhaps the most famous flights using the Airbus A318 were the British Airways services between London City airport and New York JFK. These were referred to as Club World London City, and featured just 32 seats – all of them business class. They took over the old Concorde flight numbers, BA1 and BA3 to New York and BA2 and BA4 to London.
Airbus A318 Operators
Seven airlines ordered the Airbus A318 off the production line, and another two airlines picked up the entire fleets of two of them. Here are pictures of all the airline liveries worn by the jet. The first 11 are all Frontier planes and you will see why…
Overall Thoughts
There were just 80 Airbus A318s produced between 2001 and 2013, which is a very short production run indeed. It is both the smallest and lowest selling variant of the A320 family.
Today you can find them in service with Air France and TAROM, which are the final airlines operating them. Once they go, the remaining fleet will be in private hands.
Have you flown on board the baby bus before? What was that like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
Enjoying the series? Check out the index to all the “Does Anyone Remember…” articles.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Frontier – N801FR via Pinterest, N806FR via Pinterest, and N807FR via Pinterest. N802FR, N803FR, N804FR, N805FR and N812FR by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons. Cubbie_n_Vegas on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons took the pictures of N808FR and N810FR. Finally, N809FR is by Eddie Maloney via Wikimedia Commons.
Air France original livery by Philippe Noret of AirTeamimages, current livery by Kambui. Mexicana old livery by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt on Airliners.net and new livery by André Austin Du-Pont Rocha on Airliners.net. Avianca by Andrés Ramírez on Airliners.net and Avianca Brasil by Rafael Luiz Canossa. LAN by Aeroprints on Flickr, TAROM by Anna Zvereva and British Airways by Ronnie Macdonald. All via Wikimedia Commons.
I remember TWA ordered 50, with options on another 50. Partly to get the always-deferred A330 order off the books. Then along came AA and they cancelled the order along with the remaining 717s. I recall reading in the TWA employee newsletter that the plan was for the 318 to fly long, thin routes in the TWA system so it would have been interesting to see where TWA would have sent those ships. TW had opened focus cities in SJU, then LAX with a third one to be announced, that never was. My speculation based on the number of gates TW had at various stations at the time led me to think BOS was next. They had 6 or 7 gates, and operating flights to STL, JFK and SJU as well a couple of Caribbean flights a few times a week. Some transcons and a few more leisure destinations ex-BOS would have suited the 318 for the long, thin routes TWA ordered them for. Fun to speculate about in retrospect…another aviation “What If?” scenario.
Yes, I remember this too. AA were very quick to ditch the outstanding TWA orders, that’s for sure. I was always rooting for TWA to survive, but that awful Karabu agreement really hamstrung them for years. It would have been interesting to see what the A318s did, so it must have been some cross country type things. Would have been a comfortable enough ride too, you’d think. I’d love to have seen the A318 in the TWA livery, that’s for sure!