The Airbus A310 is a medium-sized widebody airliner and essentially a shortened version of the earlier Airbus A300. The aircraft was first designated 'A300B10'. Apart from the shorter fuselage, the A310 has a new wing which is smaller than that of the A300, smaller horizontal tail surfaces and a two-crew EFIS flightdeck, deleting the flight engineer from the cockpit. The A310 seats 190 to 280 passengers depending on cabin configuration. The airliner competed with the Boeing 767-200.
The Airbus A310 is the second aircraft type of the European airliner manufacturer and it performed its maiden flight on April 3 1982. A year later Lufthansa introduced the type in service. Airbus developed two versions: the standard A310-200 and the longer-range A310-300, which carries extra fuel in the tailplane. One example was built as A310-200C, a convertible passenger/freighter, delivered to the Dutch charter airline Martinair in 1984. On later production aircraft Airbus introduced small winglets.
 Airbus delivered a total of 255 A310s. Final assembly took place on a combined A300/A310 production line in Toulouse. Although Airbus finished the last A310 in 1998, the production line remained open until production of the A300 ended in July 2007. An order for five Airbus A310 aircraft for Iraqi Airways was never performed. A number of passenger aircraft has been converted to A310-200F freighters, primarily on behalf of Federal Express (FedEx).
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