Editing Airbus A310 (section)

=== Entry into service ===
The range of the A310 exceeds that of the A300 series, with the exception of the A300-600R, which in turn surpasses that of the A310-200.  The greater range of the A310 contributed to the airliner being used extensively by operators on [[transatlantic flight|transatlantic]] routes.  The A300 and A310 introduced the concept of [[commonality]]: A300-600 and A310 pilots can cross-qualify for the other aircraft with one day of training.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}}

Sales of the A310 continued through the early 1980s.  On 3 April 1982, the prototype A310-200 airliner conducted its [[maiden flight]]; by this point, the type had accumulated a combined orders and options for 181 aircraft, which had been placed by fifteen airlines worldwide, which was a better start than the original A300. The launch customer of A310, Swissair, became the launch operator in April 1983.<ref name=Airbus_MBI1999>{{Cite book |last1=Norris |first1=Guy and Mark Wagner |title=Airbus |location=St. Paul, Minnesota |publisher=MBI Publishing, 1999 |year= 1999|isbn=0-7603-0677-X |ref={{harvid|Norris|Wagner|1999}} |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/airbus0000norr }}</ref> Over time, it had become clear that the longer-range series −200 aircraft was the more popular of the two models on offer.  During 1979, in response to the lack of demand for the A310-100, Airbus decided to stop offering the lower gross weight model which had been originally proposed for Lufthansa; as a consequence, none of this variant were ultimately manufactured.<ref name=A310-history1 />