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The first A320neo in flight, seen from inside a chase plane on Sept. 25, 2014. Airbus

The latest jetliner from Airbus, the A320neo, made its first flight on Thursday, from the airport adjacent to the company’s assembly plant in Toulouse, France.

The single-aisle, twin-engine jet, designed to seat about 160 passengers, took off around noon local time with a test crew of five on board and landed back in Toulouse two and a half hours later, after flying over the South of France.

The first flight, with Airbus test pilots Philippe Pellerin and Etienne Miche de Malleray at the controls, was a success, the company said in a statement. The first A320neo will now embark on a 3,000-hour program of test flights before delivery to the launch customer, Qatar Airways, in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The European consortium touts the A320neo as a more fuel-efficient successor to its best-seller, the A320 family, which entered service in 1988. Using the same size fuselage but new engines, the A320neo (“new engine option”) burns, according to Airbus, 20 percent less fuel per seat than the current A320 -- and has an 8 percent lower fuel burn per seat than Boeing’s competing 737 MAX 8.

The first airplane to fly was powered by American-made Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM engines. Airbus offers the A320neo also with CFM International’s LEAP-1A engines, made by a joint venture between General Electric and France's Snecma.

Airbus has more than 3,200 orders for the A320neo family, which includes three jets: the A319neo, A320neo and A321neo, in order of size, seating up to 160, 189 and 240 passengers, respectively, in the highest-density configuration.

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The first A320neo takes off on its maiden flight on Sept. 25, 2014 in Toulouse, France. Airbus

The A320neo family will be assembled in Toulouse and Hamburg, Germany, from components produced in France, Germany, Spain and the U.K.

Boeing’s direct competitors are the similarly sized 737 MAX 7, MAX 8 and MAX 9 models, whose first flight is expected in 2016 for delivery in 2017. The 737 MAX also updates the current 737 family with new engines but with the same fuselage. Launched in 2011, one year after the A320neo, the Boeing model has sold 2,294 units so far.