Originally Posted by
misd-agin
Cost of flying the a/c, and not cost of pilot training, was the problem.
I'd argue both probably had an impact. A large chunk of Airbus's business case around having their whole FBW range being more-or-less identical in terms of flight deck arrangement and handling was to save airlines money on type conversion training. No matter how people feel about it, it was a very slick bit of thinking around technology and commerce - and something that Boeing and MD could not match - not in spite of the success of their legacy types, but precisely because of it!
Obviously there's a weight saving using an A321 vs. a B752, but at some point in the '80s, Boeing would have had the option of building their future short/medium-haul range around either shrinking the 757 or stretching the 737. I'm guessing that the number of existing B737s (and type-rated pilots) had a big impact on that decision.