The Airbus A320 is a short to medium range commercial passenger airliner manufactured by Airbus.

The A320 was first delivered in 1988 and it uses digital fly-by-wire flight control systems.  At that time, the American West Airlines was experiencing financial troubles due to the rapid growth of the airlines which resulted in large operating losses.  During 1986, the company was in the verge of bankruptcy.

In 1990, the American West Airlines moved into the new terminal 4 and also took the delivery of several Airbus A320 aircraft that were destined for the now defunct Braniff Airways.  The A320s were sold to America West at a steep discount.  

The America West Airlines continued to lose money and operated in bankruptcy from 1991 to 1994.  The company resorted to organizational restructuring and the bankruptcy also forced a number of changes on the management aspect.  

The American West continued ordering Airbus A320 and gradually started retiring its older Boeing 737-200 aircraft.

The most notable contribution of the A320 airliner is that it was the best selling member among the family.  

The A320 features a computerised on-board maintenance system.  It also features a wider single-aisle cabin and larger overhead bins.  The A320 airliners and other variants (A318, A319, and A321) incorporate LCD (liquid crystal display) units in the flight deck instead of the original CRT (cathode ray tube) displays.

There are over 3,000 A320 airliners built, making it the second best selling jet airliner family of all time.