Half year through 2023, Airbus has delivered 316 aircraft to 73 customers. This means that the European airframer is some 400 aircraft short of its full-year target of 720 deliveries. With evidence that the supply chain is getting more stable and deliveries usually being back-loaded in November and December, Airbus seems on track to meet that target. Airbus: 400 deliveries to go to meet 2023 target.
As we reported in our own analysis yesterday (with slightly different numbers), Airbus has had a slow start to the year. Taking the official Airbus numbers, only 20 aircraft were delivered in January. They more than doubled to 46 in February and reached 61 in March before dropping slightly to 54 in April. May was back at 63. June saw 72 deliveries, the highest of the year and only surpassed by December 2022, when 96 narrowbodies and widebodies left the Airbus factories.
The 316 deliveries in this HY1 compare to 297 in the same period of 2022 and 2021, 196 in 2020, 389 in 2019, 303 in 2018, and 306 in 2017. So the trend is up again compared to the Covid years, still down on 2019, but higher than in the years before that.
Most deliveries are A321neo’s
By model, 147 A321neo’s were delivered in the first six months, including the first one produced in Tianjin that was delivered to a European customer, Wizz Air, in late June (see main picture). Another 106 A320neo’s, 25 A220-300s, 16 A350-900s, 12 A330-900s, fiveA350-1000s, three A319neo’s, and two A330-800s were delivered.
Airbus will provide the latest production rates later this month in its HY1-results earnings call, but the A320neo family should be around 50 per month, a number shared by CEO Guillaume Faury during the full-year 2022 press conference in February. The rate will progressively increase to 65 per month by the end of 2024 and to 75 per month in 2026.
The A220 is currently at six aircraft per month and will go to fourteen by the middle of this decade. The A330ceo and -neo are produced at three a month, but this will increase to four next year. The A350 is at six per month, but the plan is to go to rate nine by the end of 2025 on the back of strong demand for the passenger and freighter versions.
Record orders in June
Thanks to the record order from IndiGo at the Paris Airshow for 500 aircraft, Airbus booked 902 gross orders in June. After only two cancelations during the month, this makes 900 net orders. Whereas IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Airbus didn’t specify the order during the airshow press conference, the order list for June does: 125 are A320neo’s, 375 A321neo’s. Also included is the Air India order plus all other orders that were finalized at the Paris Airshow.
New are a few orders from undisclosed customers. One has ordered 22 A320neo’s and 38 A321neo’s on June 2, the second four A330-900s on June 26, a third twelve A220-300s on June 30, and a fourth six A320neo’s, also on the last day of June. Airbus has now booked 1.080 gross orders in 2023. Including 36 cancelations, that makes 1.044.
Boeing will announce its HY1 numbers on Tuesday.