5 reasons why Airbus went from struggling outsider to beating Boeing

• Airbus has overtaken Boeing in market cap as the latter’s share price has dropped this year.
• The European manufacturer made its mark in the US by leasing four A300s to Eastern Air Lines for free.
• The A320’s revolutionary fly-by-wire design and the Boeing 737 Max groundings helped boost Airbus.

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It wasn’t long before regulators around the world grounded the 737 Max. Boeing’s newest jet didn’t fly again for 20 months — the longest period ever for an American airliner.

In 2019, Airbus beat Boeing on plane orders for the first time since the A320neo took the Paris Air Show by storm eight years earlier.

The European company has kept the crown since then, and even broke records last year.

January’s Alaska Airlines blowout only heightened scrutiny of the Max. According to investigators’ preliminary report, the plane left Boeing’s factory missing key bolts that were supposed to secure the door plug.

As the planemaker’s quality-control processes subsequently came under the microscope, Boeing limited production of its flagship narrowbody jet and appointed a new CEO.

As of September 4, one share in Boeing is worth less than half what it was at its peak in 2019.