10 Most Commonly Sold Commercial Jets to Airlines

If you fly regularly, the chances are that you are spending a lot of time on board one of these 10 most commonly sold commercial jets to airlines. More than 25,000 of them have been delivered to airlines around the world, with additional 10,000 on firm order. It is almost impossible to find an airline anywhere on the globe that doesn’t have at least one of these commercial jets in its fleet.

When Wright brothers first took to the air on that cold December morning in 1903, it is doubtful that they could imagine how their invention would transform the world in just a short span of a 100 years. The reverse is also true. Looking at the modern commercial jet behemoths carrying hundreds of passengers, it is hard to imagine that it all started with a contraption made from spruce and linen, powered by a homemade 12 horse power engine. And yet, despite its humble looks, there are few invention in history that can rival the impact Flyer I had on humanity.

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From Sikorsky’s Ilya Muromets, the first purposefully built airliner, to Airbus A380, the largest commercial jet in the world, airlines have helped shape the modern world into what we know it today tremendously. Hundreds of models have been designed and built, carrying millions of passengers to their destinations around the globe. A commercial pilot, often trained on some of the easiest airplanes to learn to fly in, has become one of the most sought after professional in the world, not to mention a very desirable career choice.

These 10 most commonly sold commercial jets to airlines represent the backbone of commercial aviation of the world. Some of them are out of production but are still flying. Since the 1990s, the market has been effectively controlled by two large conglomerates, Boing and Airbus. These two giants have managed to either swallow or push out of the business almost every other smaller manufacturer. While their domination on the list is overwhelming, there are few commercial jets on it that aren’t produced by either of the two. However, in the future, lists like these will only have two names on it.

In order to better gauge which commercial jets are most commonly sold to airlines, we have combined the numbers of delivered planes and planes on firm order. Currently, both Airbus and Boeing have several years’ worth of production sold in advance. While these firm orders can be canceled (with penalties for the buyer), with the current estimated growth of commercial airlines it is highly unlikely.