Product and Customer Concentration – the Risks for OEMs

Airbus and Boeing each have extensive wide-body and narrow-body product lines, as well as several key customers who order large fleets of aircraft. But heavy concentration can be a risk as well. Nobody wants to put all of their eggs in one basket.  But how do the duopoly members compare to the diversity of sales across the product family and concentration with just a few key customers?

Using our deliveries database, we examined the concentration in both model types and customers for Airbus and Boeing to determine if one of the players had higher risks than the others. Our findings were quite interesting.

Tracking our daily delivery database from January 1, 2021, through November 5, 2023, we found that Airbus delivered 1,867 aircraft to 1,151 from Boeing. Airbus’s market share in deliveries during the period was 61.8%, giving it a strong lead in the duopoly. There were several issues impacting both OEMs during the period, with Boeing having the more difficult impacts due to quality issues. Both OEMs faced supply chain issues, and with the Pratt & Whitney 1100G engine issues, we expect supply chain and quality issues to continue into 2025-2026.  Each OEM will have a difficult time meeting 2023 production targets.

Concentration by Product