In the first half of 2023 alone, the manufacturer’s order book increased by 1,044 aircraft, but this already includes the amazingly large orders of Indian airlines. Sweet burden…or not?
Basically, the business is in crisis if the particular firm does not have orders. In our case, however, the opposite is true, as Airbus’ disadvantage is currently insurmountable compared to the number of aircraft that will be delivered to its customers in the future – 7,967 as of the end of June! More subtle: this includes planes that Airbus will only have to deliver in eight to ten years, and there are also a slew of optional pre-orders, which means a potential customer could opt out of the deal.
But even then: Suppose only about eighty aircraft are being assembled a month, and the aircraft manufacturer still has about a hundred months and eight years of hard work ahead of us, and we haven’t even talked about the purchase intentions that happened in the meantime! In June, Airbus delivered 72 aircraft to 48 customers, so the number of deliveries in the first half of the year increased to 316 – at the end of March the plant was only 130. Among the aircraft delivered were 25 A220s, three A319neos, 106 A320neos, 147 A321neos, 14 A330neos and 21 A350s. Single-aisle aircraft accounted for 89 percent of deliveries, with an average of 47 aircraft per month.
At the same time, in the first six months of the year (including Air India’s 244 and IndiGo’s massive booking of 500 aircraft), Airbus received orders for 1,080 aircraft, many of which were cancelled, resulting in the 1,044 indicated in the introduction. India and IndiGo account for more than seventy percent of the order book. Another 129 were ordered by unnamed customers, 73 by Qatar Airways and 30 by Saudi Arabia’s first low-cost airline, Flynas. In addition, six other airlines have announced orders for more than ten aircraft: Azerbaijan Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, IAG, Lufthansa and Uzbekistan Airlines.
The total backorders of 7,967 consisted of 7,275 single-aisle aircraft, 208 A330s and 484 A350 wide-body aircraft. Unsurprisingly, the single-aisle segment consisted of 2,556 A320neos and 4,085 A321neos, about 84 percent of the total fleet. 535 of the A220s and 79 of the A319neos are awaiting production and then delivery.
In the widebody category, customers can expect 484 A350 aircraft, including 39 new A350F freighters. Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air Lease Corporation (seven each), Air France, CMA CGM, Martinair (four each) and Silk Way West Airlines (two) are among the largest freighter customers.
Australia’s Qantas has 12 A350-1000s on order for Project Sunrise ultra-long haul flights starting in 2025 (the airline will fly nonstop from Australia’s east coast to London, Paris and New York). But even more notable customers than Qantas in terms of A350-1000 orders are Indian Airlines (34), Qatar Airways (twenty), Iran Air (16), Etihad Airways (15) and Japan Airlines (13), followed by Lucky Air with its ten and Philippine Airlines with a capacity of 350s.
