(Added comments on 2024 delivery in paragraph 5 and details on the A321XLR in paragraph 10) by Joanna Plucinska and Dagmarah Mackos
Airbus AIR.PA reported a record number of annual jet orders and confirmed an 11% rise in deliveries in 2023 on Thursday, retaining the top manufacturing spot for the fifth consecutive year against its rival Boeing BA.N.
As airlines work to renew their fleets, Airbus said it won 2,319 gross orders and 2,094 net orders after cancellations. Confirming a Reuters report, Airbus said it had delivered 735 planes, bringing its order book to 8,598.
Guillaume Faury, Airbus’ chief executive, said the plane maker, which started the year slowly due to tight supply chains, saw “flexibility and capacity increase” in its industrial system.
He added that he was confident that Airbus would achieve the target of 75 A320neo family aircraft assembled per month in 2026.
While orders have exceeded pre-pandemic levels amid strong travel demand, Faury said he did not think Airbus would reach its 2019 record delivery levels this year, or anywhere near 870 planes. The company will communicate its objectives for 2024 in February.
“The supply chain situation remains tense. It’s improving, it’s getting better, but we’re also flying higher because we continue to ramp up in 2024,” Faury told a conference. press.
Christian Scherer, who in January left his role as head of sales to become managing director of the core commercial aircraft business, said aviation had recovered more quickly than expected from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particularly in large wide-body aircraft.
“The responsibility is to deliver on this commitment to deliver an order book of 8,600 aircraft on time and with the required quality,” he said.
Airbus is fully booked until the end of the decade for single-aisle aircraft and until 2028 for wide-body aircraft, Mr. Scherer said.
He reiterated that the A321XLR, the company’s newest and longest-lived single-aisle aircraft, would be delivered for the first time in the second quarter.
Boeing, still recovering from the safety grounding of its 737 MAX followed by a series of production problems and another partial grounding of the 737 MAX 9, said Tuesday that it had delivered 528 planes in 2023 .
It recorded 1,314 net new orders after accounting for cancellations.