Airbus eyes shift to A321

Airbus may shift more of its narrrow-body jetliner production toward the largest member of the A320 family, sales chief John Leahy said on Monday. The 185-seat A321neo has been winning more orders than the 178-seat Boeing MAX 9. The A321 and A321neo successor make up 34 percent of Airbus' narrow-body order backlog, but production plans already call for 50 percent of the total to be in that size. Leahy said that proportion could increase even further. (Source: Reuters, 02/29/16) Gulf Coast note: The initial jetliners being assembled at the U.S. Manufacturing Center in Mobile, Ala., are all A321 models.