Boeing is betting big on its upcoming $442 million 777X to compete with the popular Airbus A350. Here's how the jets compare.

The Airbus A350 follows at about 242 feet, then the 777-8 at 232.5 feet. The A350-900 is the smallest of the four at just over 219 feet long, according to the planemaker.

The 777-8's smaller cabin can carry up to 395 people, based on a two-class configuration. The A350-900 and A350-1000 planes have capacity for 315 and 369 people in two classes, respectively, according to Airbus.

Both the A350-1000 and the 777-8 have ranges exceeding 10,000 miles, but the latter can fly about 50 miles farther. By comparison, the 777-9 can fly for about 8,400 miles nonstop, while the A350-900 can fly for 9,500.

The smaller but higher-ranged 777-8 plane is intended to capture longer-haul flights with lower demand.

The Boeing and Airbus widebody cabins have innovations like better temperature control, improved ergonomics, big overhead bins, and unique lighting — like the Northern Lights color scheme on the 777X or the sky and clouds scene on a Finnair A350.

The 777X boasts larger windows and a wider cabin than the A350, according to Boeing.

For its part, Airbus says its A350 offers the quietest twin-engine cabin, and its Airspace design "delivers a sense of spaciousness with wider seats, high ceilings, and alluring ambient lighting."

The 777X offers a width of about 19 and a half feet, which Boeing says is "16 [inches] wider than the competition."

Airbus' A350 family of planes is about 18 feet wide, according to the manufacturer.

Both the 777X and the A350 airframes allow for 10 abreast rows, which has been the norm on the previous-generation 777 for years but is new for the A350 as of October 2022.

The planemaker's A350 still typically sees nine seats per row, like on the newly delivered one to Air India.

The 777X has a wingspan of 235 feet and five inches with the wingtips deployed — a key part of its advanced efficiency. The full wings are 23 feet longer than older 777 variants, generating more lift and reducing fuel burn by 10%.

General Electric makes the 777X's GE9X engines, which, according to GE, are the biggest ever built globally and are 10% more fuel efficient than the GE90 predecessor developed for the classic 777 models.

The entire body of a Boeing 737 narrowbody can fit inside the GE9X engine, and the powerplant can produce some 100,000 pounds of thrust.

Meanwhile, the unique folding wingtips are an industry first, and Boeing is confident in their safety. A 777X test pilot told Business Insider at an airshow in July 2022 that the wingtips are safe due to redundancies, alerts, and detailed electronic checklists.

When the wingtips are retracted, the wingspan is the same as the classic 777 at about 212 feet — the same as the A350.

Without the adjustable wingtips, aircraft operators and airports might be put off by the 777X due to the time and money associated with accommodating the longer wingspan.

The Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine is the "world's most efficient large aero-engine," according to Airbus.

The powerplant boasts a 25% lower fuel burn and CO2 emissions than previous options, which Airbus says help drive down operating costs.

When Airbus developed the A350, it used a clean-sheet design rather than innovating its previous widebodies, like the four-engine Airbus A340, to better compete with the twin-engine Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 airliners.

The planemaker settled on a composite airframe to make the A350 lighter, saying on its website that the airframe and the engines together "significantly lower fuel burn, CO2 emissions, and maintenance costs while optimizing range and payload."

The Boeing 777X, by comparison, was derived from the classic 777 and has the traditional aluminum fuselage — though with composite wings.

The 777X composite materials used over traditional metals will improve the rigidity and strength of the stretched wings, according to Boeing.

Complementing the engines, the lightweight composite will contribute some 10% lower operating costs on the 777-9 compared to the A350-1000, per Boeing.

The 777X variants are tens of millions of dollars more expensive than the A350. According to list prices, the 777-9 is about $442 million, and the 777-8 is about $410 million.

The less expensive Airbus planes list at about $366 million for the A350-1000 and about $317 million for an A350-900.

Though, airplanes regularly don't sell at the full list price.

Compared to the 777X's yearslong certification delays, the A350 has experienced fewer production and quality problems. There are about 1,300 of the widebodies in service, with nearly 600 on order, according to Airbus.

A significant hiccup, however, came in 2021 when Qatar filed a lawsuit against Airbus over chipped paint on some of the airline's A350s, which led to Airbus changing the jet's design and eventually revolving the concerns with Qatar in 2023.

Australian flag carrier Qantas plans to launch the world's new longest flight using A350-1000s modified with an extra fuel tank.

The ultra-long-haul plane is set to connect Sydney to New York and London nonstop — routes that stretch some 10,000 miles and up to 21 hours in the air.

However, Airbus has faced hold-ups on the assembly line relating to the fuel tank, which has delayed the delivery of the jetliner by at least six months from 2025 to mid-2026, Forbes reported.

Boeing launched the 777X program in November 2013, when the first deliveries were expected by 2020. However, problems related to the pandemic, heightened scrutiny after the Boeing 737 Max 8 incidents, and supply chain issues have pushed that to at least 2025 and cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in additional expenses.

Meanwhile, Emirates President Tim Clark previously stated the plane would not enter the market until 2026 but has still placed orders for both the 777-9 and the 777-8 variants.

In late 2019, Qantas chose the A350 to power its Project Sunrise flights, with Airbus beating out the bid by Boeing. At the time, the American planemaker dealt with the fallout from two deadly 737 Max 8 crashes and structural issues with the 777X.

Korean Air signed a $14 billion order with Airbus in March for more than 30 A350 planes, choosing the readily available plane over the yet-to-be-certified 777X.

Emirates has purchased the most 777Xs so far, holding 205 of the 481 airline orders, according to Boeing.

Other buyers include Air India, Japan's All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines, as well as a few cargo airlines and undisclosed customers.