Airbus and Boeing exceed 2023 delivery targets

UPDATE - Both Airbus and Boeing have met and even exceeded their delivery targets for 2023. Airbus has delivered 728 airliners, Boeing 524 commercial plus a few military aircraft. Embraer and ATR fall short of their targets with respectively 61 and 33 deliveries, preliminary data compiled by AirInsight shows. We stress that these are not the official numbers, but AirInsight has tried to determine the correct number of deliveries for December on a day-by-day basis. We tracked deliveries on Phil’s Airline Fleetnews, compared them with Skyliner Aviation, and referred to Planespotters and Flightradar24 if there were any doubts. We added the December deliveries through December 31 to the official numbers for 2023 through November 30 provided by Airbus and Boeing to get to the full-year numbers. In what has been a heavily backloaded December month, Airbus and Boeing delivered almost unprecedented numbers of aircraft to clear out the inventory. So let’s analyze. Airbus Airbus said in February in its 2023 guidance that it targeted 720 commercial aircraft deliveries this year. CEO Guillaume Faury later in the year said “around 720.” On November 30, the airframer said that it had delivered 623 aircraft, so it was left with another 97 to go to at least meet the 2023 delivery target. They succeeded and got to 728 deliveries. We tracked 105 deliveries for December, including the final delivery flight of a Delta Air Lines A330-900 that is scheduled for the last day of the year. By type, Airbus delivered just one A220-100, 11 A220-300s, and one ACJ319neo. Delta received 3 A220-300s, Breeze and jetBlue 2 each. Qantas took delivery of its first A220-300. The A320neo records 37 deliveries, with the A321neo slightly ahead at 39. Chinese carriers took quite a lot of deliveries during the month. China Southern received five A320neo’s and two A321neo’s, Air China three A320neo’s, Xiamen 2 A321neo’s, and Juneyao a single A320neo. JetSmart collected three A320neo’s and two A321neo’s, LATAM two of each model. IndiGo inducted four A320neo’s and its rival Air India three. First A321neo deliveries included those to Transavia Netherlands (main picture) and Sunclass. There were six A330-900 deliveries in December, including two for Delta and single deliveries to ITA Airways, Cebu, Condor, and Sunclass. In total eight A350-900s left Toulouse, with the first one to Air India marking a milestone for the airline. Air France added two -900s to the fleet, China Eastern, Sichuan Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Iberia, and Cathay Pacific all one each. There were only two A350-1000 deliveries this month, including the first to Japan Airlines and another one for British Airways. Full year deliveries by type are: three A220-100s, 66 A220-300s, seven A319neo/ACJ319neo, 242 A320neo’s, 318 A321neo’s, three A330-200s, 29 A330-900s, 49 A350-900s, and 11 A350-1000s. We have to include a disclaimer: Airbus might have listed several contractual deliveries in December that only show up in their list in the second week of January. In December 2022, there were four contractual deliveries with actual deliveries pushed back until the first days of January 2023. Despite persistent supply chain issues, 2023 has been Airbus’s best delivery year for a while. The original target for 2022 also was 720 deliveries, but the year closed with 661. In 2021, deliveries stood at 611, in 2020 they were 566. 2019 stands out with 863 ahead of 800 in 2018. Given the plans to gradually ramp up production in the coming years, 800 to 850 should be realistic for 2024. Boeing Boeing reported 461 deliveries for January through November, of which 351 were 737/MAX. Following the supply chain and production quality issues, notably at Spirit AeroSystems, Boeing revised its guidance for 737/MAX deliveries in October from the original 400-450 to 375-400. Based on our numbers - including a last-minute delivery to United Airlines on December 30 -, we count 395 737/MAX deliveries for the year, so close to the high end of the revised guidance. Despite the rework on the tailfin fittings, aft pressure bulkhead and the effects of a strike at Spirit AeroSystems, the airframer made up well for these issues. December deliveries include 35 MAX 8s, five -8200s, three -9s, and a single P-8A Poseidon military version for the Republic of Korea. Eight MAX 8 deliveries were for Southwest, six for United, four for Air India Express, and two for American and Akasa each. Alaska Airlines received its first MAX 8 but also another -9. There is also one BBJ MAX 8 included. All MAX 8200s were for Ryanair Group, with the parent airline taking four and Polish subsidiary Buzz Air a single aircraft. Smartwings took delivery of its ninth Boeing MAX 8 on December 14. (Smartwings) Widebody deliveries for December were rather low. UPS took delivery of two 767-300F freighters, and FedEx received one. The US Air Force received three KC-46 tankers. Until December 30, a 777F was the only one delivered to AeroLogic until Qatar Airways also took delivery of a Triple Seven freighter. Dreamliner deliveries reached 11 during December, of which eight are 787-9s and three -10s. This brings total deliveries for the year to 73, which is just above the lower end of this year’s guidance of 70 to 80 Dreamliners that Boeing set at the start of the year. Dash 9 deliveries went to Air Europa and Qatar Airways with two each, while Turkish Airlines, ANA, Korean Air, and Juneyao took one aircraft each. The delivery to Juneyao was the first Dreamliner to a Chinese customer in over two years. EVA Air took delivery of two 787-10s, and Singapore Airlines of one. Adding up the numbers, we count full-year deliveries as 394 737/MAX, a single and the last 747-8F, 31 767/KC-46, 23 777Fs, and 73 787s. Or 522 in total, which compares to 480 in 2022, 340 in 2021, 157 in 2020, 380 in 2019, and 806 in 2018. That was the last year before Boeing deliveries were affected by the grounding of the MAX, the pandemic, supply chain, and other issues. Boeing President and CEO David Calhoun said last year that the target is to reach 800 again in 2025-2026 as rates for the MAX and 787 are ramped up and the 777X finally joins its customers. Binter Canarias collected three Embraer E195-E2s on December 28. (Binter Canarias) Embraer Embraer was at 39 commercial aircraft deliveries by the end of September but reiterated its guidance of 65 to 70 deliveries for the full year. According to our survey, the Brazilians just missed out and reached 61. Embraer doesn’t share monthly delivery numbers, so we used other sources to track them down for Q4. For October and November, we counted five E175 and five E195-E2 deliveries. This grew to 12 deliveries in December. Most of them are E195-E2s, with Porter Airlines receiving three aircraft that are on sale and leaseback from Azorra. Binter Canarias came to Sao Jose dos Campos to collect three aircraft on December 28, the same thing that Porter did a year before. With an earlier delivery on the 19th, the Spanish regional carrier has grown its E2 fleet by four in a single month. The only other E2 deliveries in December were two for Azul. Only three E175s were delivered during the month: two to Skywest and one to Envoy/American Eagle. Full-year deliveries stand at 26 E175s and 35 E195-E2s. The 61 E-Jet deliveries compare to 57 in 2022, 48 in 2021, 44 in 2020, 89 in 2019, and 90 in 2018. Keep in mind that these numbers exclude executive aircraft. Embraer said in August that it plans a 20 percent rate increase in 2024. This should bring deliveries to between 77 and 84. ATR French-Italian turboprop maker ATR doesn’t share delivery numbers either. We have to look at shareholder Leonardo for this in their quarterly updates. Leonardo said in October that ATR had delivered 21 turboprops in the first three quarters. Mandarin Airlines took delivery of the first ATR 72-600 with P&W127XT-M engines on December 30. (ATR) We tracked seven deliveries in October and November, with five 72-600s joining Binter Canarias. This month, ATR delivered five aircraft. Binter was the owner of two aircraft, but IndiGo, Sky Express, and Mandarin Airlines also received new aircraft. For the Taiwanese carrier, it was the first with the new Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127XT-M engines that has grown the fleet to ten turboprops. So 21 deliveries until October and another 12 in Q4 makes 33 in total, which falls short of the 2023 target of 40 deliveries. This compares to 25 in 2022, 31 in 2021, 10 in 2020, and 68 in 2019. CEO Nathalie Tarnaud Laude said that ATR aims to deliver around 80 aircraft by 2026, so that remains a steep ramp-up from where the airframer ended up in 2023.

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