The world’s largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus has once again left its struggling competitor Boeing far behind in 2023. Despite tense supply chains, the European manufacturer handed over 735 commercial aircraft to its customers, as it announced in Toulouse. That was over 200 more than Boeing and 15 more than Airbus boss Guillaume Faury had targeted. Thanks to the recovery of air traffic from the Corona crisis, the DAX group also received orders for more than 2,000 jets – thereby setting an industry record. The order backlog also reached a record high of almost 8,600 aircraft.
Last year, Airbus cut its delivery target twice due to a shortage of components such as seats and engines and ultimately only delivered 661 jets. Faury had therefore planned comparatively cautiously for 2023. He originally wanted to reach the target of 720 machines by 2022.
The manager explained that things went better this time because of the greater flexibility and performance of Airbus and its suppliers. However, the delivery record of 863 machines from the pre-Corona year 2019 is still a long way away.
Last year alone, Airbus collected orders for 2,319 new passenger and cargo jets. After deducting cancellations, there were 2,094 items, well more than twice as many as the year before. Neither Airbus nor its only relevant rival Boeing had ever booked so many orders in one year before.
