European plane maker Airbus SE EADSY 0.06% for two decades was the biggest champion of the world’s largest airliners. After dumping the A380 superjumbo earlier this year, the jet maker is all but ceding the market for the very biggest airliners to rival Boeing Co.
Guillaume Faury, who takes the chief executive reins next month, said the market for planes with 400 seats or more is too small to fight over. The company instead will step up its battle with Boeing for a range of smaller jets that make up the bulk of the commercial-airliner fleet.
“It might make more sense to be more and more competitive serving 95% or 98% of the market than trying to invest a lot of money to capture the small remaining part of the market,” Mr. Faury said in an interview ahead of taking Airbus’s top job. He currently runs the company’s commercial-plane business.