March 9th was an exciting day for av-geeks as it marked the first passenger flight of an Airbus A319neo aircraft. The honor went to China’s largest carrier China Southern Airlines, which received its first pair of A319neos not too long ago.

First flight

The A319neo is not a plane that many can claim to have seen. So, when an aircraft like this takes to the skies for the first time in a commercial, passenger-carrying capacity, it deserves mention.

China Southern received its first A319neo last month, and commercial operations of the aircraft were expected to follow soon. That’s exactly what happened on March 9th when the plane departed Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) for Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) for its first commercial service as flight CZ3403.

According to Flightradar24, the airplane took off at 7:32 am, seven minutes after its scheduled departure time of 7:25 am. It completed the journey in 2 hours and 5 minutes, landing in Chengdu at 9:36 am, well before its scheduled arrival at 10 am.

After about an hour and a half, the aircraft (registered as B-328C) was ready for its return flight to Guangzhou, taking off at 11:07 am.

Flight path
The flight took a little over two hours to complete. Photo: Flightradar24

From then till now

Simple Flying has been keeping a close eye on the A319neo and particularly the ones made for China Southern. In July 2020, we tried to uncover which airlines had ordered the variant. China Southern wasn’t in the picture back then, although there were reports of Air China being a customer.

But at the slightest whiff of the Guangzhou-based carrier ordering the jet, we took a first look at the airplane in November 2020, which until then had a test registration D-AVWG. As reported, China Southern had shown interest in the plane just a month before that and saw its first A319neo go from being ordered to painted in just over a month.

Almost a year later, we tracked D-AVWG’s flight testing, as the plane was spotted in the skies above Germany. Until then, the A319neo had only been delivered to private customers, and the testing was the first for the variant’s commercial plane.

After almost half a year, we reported China Southern finally receiving two A319neos, one after the other, carrying the registrations B-328A and B-328C.

It’s probably not easy being an A319neo. The aircraft finds itself a rather unwanted member of an accomplished family of overachievers. Sharing 95% commonality with the A320 family, the hope was that it would further the family name in the same way that A320neo and A321neo did.

But there was competition lurking in the corner in the form of the A220, which raced ahead with over 600 orders compared to the A319neo’s 70. Those interested in a detailed comparison of the two airplanes can click here.

Clearly, numbers aren’t exactly on the A319neo’s side, but this could also become its strength, at least as far as popularity among av-geeks is concerned. With so few examples of the type, it could offer a unique experience for aviation enthusiasts and bragging rights of having flown in a not-so-common A320 family member.