Airbus
Airbus A320ceo
Your answers
From below
The view you'll actually get from high overhead.
Field marks
- Flat end-fins at the wingtip, not upturned blades, are the tell against any neo
- Slimmer, round engine pods than a neo — visibly smaller relative to the wing
- Rounded cockpit windows and a pointed nose rule out any 737
Specs
- Length
- 37.57 m
- Wingspan
- 34.10 m
- Engines
- CFM56-5B / IAE V2500
- Typical seats
- 150–186
Size and shape, to scale
Photos can't hold a consistent scale from shot to shot — these silhouettes are all drawn at the same 10 px = 1 m scale, so the proportions here are trustworthy even though the photos above aren't.
Variant notes
- Original CFM56/V2500-powered generation, produced 1988–2019 before the neo took over
- An upturned-blade wingtip retrofit (a "sharklet") became available from 2018 but uptake is limited — most ceos still fly with the original flat end-fins
- Still the single most numerous A320-family variant in service worldwide
Commonly confused with
-
Airbus A320neo
Airbus
Upturned wingtip blades plus visibly fat engine pods mark it as a neo
-
Airbus A319
Airbus
Small flat end-fins above and below the wingtip (spotters call these "fences") are the default — an upturned blade tip (a "sharklet") marks a rare neo or retrofit
-
Airbus A321ceo
Airbus
Four overwing exits (two pairs) instead of the A320's two are the length tell up close
-
Boeing 737NG
Boeing
The engine pod is sliced flat on the bottom — the classic 737 tell, needed for ground clearance on its low-slung landing gear