The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus delivered 232 commercial aircraft to customers since the beginning of the year. This includes 194 narrow-body and 38 wide-body airliners.
Nevertheless, management poured cold water on the idea that the safety concerns plaguing the Boeing 737 MAX will lead to turbocharged growth for Airbus. First, supply-chain constraints continue to limit Airbus’ production despite strong demand from airlines for its jets. Second, Airbus is still struggling to build aircraft efficiently and remains unable to match Boeing’s profitability and cash flow.
In addition, in 2019, Airbus also received firm orders for 67 commercial aircraft (24 narrow-body and 43 wide-body).
The company said in its financial results for the three months to March 31, 2019, it expected to deliver between 880 and 890 commercial aircraft in the current year.
The production rate of the A320 program was due to increase to 60 aircraft a month by mid-2019 and rise to 63 aircraft a month by 2021. This compared with about 55 A320 aircraft rolling off the program’s four production lines in Hamburg (Germany), Mobile (United States), Tianjin (China) and Toulouse (France) each month currently.
