Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury opened the new year with strong hints that the Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer will raise A320neo family production above the current 2023 target of 65 aircraft per month in 2024 and 2025.
Market dynamics and the momentum for new orders that has built in the second half of 2021 led Faury to conclude that an increase in rates is “very likely at a point in time,” he said Jan. 10. Faury expects a firm decision about 2024 and 2025 rates to be made by the middle of 2022.
Airbus plans to reach 65 A320neo family deliveries per month by the middle of 2023—about 20 more than it is handing over at this point. According to Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer, there are “strong signs of recovery” as customers have not only kept most commitments in 2021, but also placed new orders. Scherer cited recent deals with Indigo Partners, Qantas and Air France-KLM. Airbus also announced the first firm order of 2022—a contract for 22 A220s with U.S. lessor Azorra Aviation.
The manufacturer is “impacted by omicron,” Faury conceded, primarily due to a larger than normal rate of absence as more employees call in sick. “We are monitoring the situation closely,” Faury said. For the moment, it is still manageable, he added. The same concerns apply to Airbus’ China operation where “omicron could change the picture significantly compared to 2020 and 2021.”
The company is also “in daily contact” with its suppliers about the impact of the omicron coronavirus variant. So far, Faury still observes a “good situation” as far as the “flying parts”—aircraft parts and components—are concerned. But he said the situation was “complex” when it came to raw materials, staff and logistics.
Airbus delivered 611 aircraft in 2021, 8% more than a year earlier. The growth was entirely based on expansion of narrowbody production, while output of widebodies contracted. The manufacturer secured 771 gross orders for the year, but also 264 cancellations.
Deliveries included 50 A220s, 12 more than in 2020, 483 A320 family aircraft (2020: 446), 18 A330s (19), 55 A350s (59) and the last five A380s, one more than last year. In 2019, had delivered 48 A220s, 642 A320 family aircraft, 53 A330s, 112 A350s and eight A380s.
Seventy-seven aircraft were delivered from the U.S. final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama; 53 were handed over in Tianjin, China.
The 771 gross orders compare to just 383 in 2020 and 1,131 in 2019.
More than half of the A330 orders came from two airlines—Italy’s ITA Airways and Germany’s Condor. The A350 program benefited from the launch of the freighter variant, which was responsible for eleven of the 16 firm orders recorded in 2021. Lufthansa placed the only order for five units of the passenger model.
Of the 264 cancellations, 162 were for the A320neo, 55 for the A321neo and seven for the A319neo. Customers also canceled orders for 26 A220s and 14 A350s. The level of cancellations was much higher than in 2020 when they had reached 115. According to Faury, the cancellations were “largely anticipated.”
The firm order backlog stood at 7,082 aircraft at the end of December 2021, compared to 7,184 a year earlier.
Despite the recent Allegiant order for 737-7s, Airbus has no plans to change the timing for the launch of a stretched A220, dubbed A220-500. “This is not an imminent decision, the -500 question will come over time,” Scherer said. Before launching the variant, the A220 would have to go through a series of milestones and a ramp-up from 5 to 14 aircraft per month by the middle of the decade, he remarked.
Related Content
