Airbus’ Record-Breaking 2023 Orders and Deliveries

Just a day after Boeing, its U.S. competitor, Airbus announced the company’s orders and deliveries figures for 2023.

Deliveries Reached the Target

Rumors had it in December that Airbus was already on the way to reach its deliveries target of 720 units. This could mean that the end-year push got Airbus employees to deliver 50 planes in just over 10 days near the year’s end as compared to mid-December figures published by Reuters. The final number of deliveries stands at 735 units.

Airbus deliveries in 2023 (Photo: Airbus – 2023 Commercial Aircraft highlights)

Still, the supply chain and manufacturing constraints hadn’t allowed it to break the high watermark of 863 set in 2019. According to the manufacturer, 2024 will not get any easier but the company is yet to publish the official targets for the year.

New Capabilities

In recent years, Airbus saw its manufacturing capabilities improve with the introduction of Airbus Mobile and Airbus Tianjin assembly lines.  Since its official inauguration in 2015, the Airbus Mobile facility has received Airbus A320 family parts, including fuselage parts, from across the Atlantic.

Adding to that, in 2019 a second production line for Airbus A220 was also opened at Mobile. This helped to take the workload from the previously only manufacturing facility for the type in Mirabel, Quebec. The 11% year-over-year Airbus production increase from 2022 can be accredited predominantly to those two models

The Airbus Tianjin assembly line contributes to its production of two aircraft types, the Airbus A320 and A330. It is a joint venture between Airbus and a consortium of Tianjin Free Trade Zone and China Aviation Industry Corporation. It is also the first widebody aircraft production site outside of Europe. The facility opened in 2017 and in October 2020 already celebrated the 500th aircraft produced onsite.

A Breeze A220 in Phoenix (Photo: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson)

Boeing Left Behind

Over recent years, Airbus seems to be ahead of its main rival Boeing. The commercial airplane manufacturing division of the American company continues to see numerous challenges, most of which are connected to Boeing’s longtime workhorse, the Boeing 737. The more than 56-year-old design can not compete with its 20 years younger Airbus A320 counterpart.

The 735 units delivered by Airbus is 39% above Boeing’s 528 aircraft. This is the fifth year in a row that the European manufacturer is holding the prime spot when it comes to aircraft manufacturing. The prognosis for the future is painted in the same colors as Airbus put an additional 2,094 aircraft orders on the books, which similarly is 59% above Boeing’s result of 1,314.

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Filip Kopeć

A passionate aviation enthusiast that started off his career as an aerospace engineer, but found his true calling on the commercial side of the airline business. Now as a finance guy among avgeeks and an avgeek among finance guys, he has experience working in the Revenue Divisions of three airlines. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, but admittedly sometimes is more about the journey than the destination.

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