LONDON – This week, Airbus revealed via its financial results that it will be ramping up its production output to meet its new delivery target of 720 aircraft by year-end.
The European planemaker outlined how production rates will increase between now and the end of 2026.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Production Rates…
For the A320 Family program, Airbus is looking to increase the production rate to 65 aircraft per month by the end of 2024 and 75 in 2026.
Such increases on this side of the program are in preparation for the entry-into-service of the A321XLR, which is due to take place in the second quarter of next year.
As for the Airbus A330 program, the production rate already increased to three per month at the end of last year, with the new target being four per month in 2024.
Finally, to the A350: The current rate of production is around six airframes per month, but Airbus wants to increase this to nine per month by the end of 2025, as demand for widebody aircraft continues to intensify.
Airbus’ 720-Figure: Nearly A 10% Forecasted Increase…
This figure of 720 deliveries to be achieved within 2023 would represent a near-10% increase compared to 2022.
Last year, the European planemaker announced 1,000 new orders and 661 deliveries in a single year.
Airbus won 1,078 new orders, which converted to 820 net across all programs.
Below, you can see the breakdown in terms of orders unveiled by Airbus:
- A220 – 127 firm gross new orders.
- A320neo Family – 888 gross new orders.
- A330 Family – 19 gross new orders.
- A350 Family – 44 gross new orders.
In terms of deliveries, you can see the breakdown below;
| Aircraft | 2022 | 2021 |
| A220 Family | 53 | 50 |
| A320 Family | 516 | 483 |
| A330 Family | 32 | 18 |
| A350 Family | 60* | 55 |
| A380 | – | 5 |
| Total | 661* | 611 |
Commenting on 2022 performance in this respect was Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, who said the following:
“In 2022, we served 84 customers with 661 deliveries, an increase of 8 percent compared to 2021.”
“That’s obviously less than we were targeting, but given the complexity of the operating environment, I want to thank the teams and our partners for the hard work and the ultimate result”.
“The significant order intake covering all our aircraft families, including freighters, reflects the strength and competitiveness of our product line.”
“We continue our ramp-up trajectory to deliver on our backlog.”
Overall…
Considering Airbus failed to meet its delivery targets last year amid supply chain issues and COVID, the European planemaker does seem optimistic that it can achieve the 720 aircraft target. And they will.
Travel demand continues to rise in intensity, which is going to require a further need for production rates to increase in the short and medium term.
If 2023 goes a lot smoother for Airbus and they can combat the problems they experienced last year, then this will definitely be a realistic target to beat moving forward.
