Airbus Double-Shrink A318 Stumped for Buyers After 10-Year Run

Airbus SAS has handed over the last A318 plane left in its backlog to a corporate VIP customer, leaving its smallest and least successful model without remaining orders for the first time in 10 years of production.

The 107-seat model won only 79 orders since it went on sale in 1998, equivalent to about two months of output of the entire A320 family, which has garnered more than 9,000 commitments. A quarter of the A318s built, including the last one shipped, went to corporate customers, who are typically less concerned with the economics of an aircraft than commercial operators.