(Paris) The European aeronautical giant Airbus delivered 766 planes in 2024, four fewer than its latest forecasts, “in a complex environment”, the group announced Thursday, which had already lowered its objectives over the last year .
Posted at 12:20 p.m.
Deliveries are up compared to last year (735 devices), but far from reaching the pre-COVID-19 level.
Airbus initially set a target of 800 deliveries in 2024, which it lowered to 770 in June. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the aeronautics supply chain, the European giant delivered 863 aircraft.
“Given the complex and rapidly evolving environment in which we continue to operate, we consider 2024 to have been a good year,” Christian Scherer, Airbus’ head of commercial aircraft, said in a statement.
At Airbus, we emphasize that the delivery objective was “around 770 aircraft” and anticipated fluctuations of around 20 aircraft.
The month of December has traditionally been the busiest month of the year with 123 aircraft delivered last year, compared to 112 aircraft delivered to customers in 2023, 98 in 2022, 93 in 2021 and 89 in 2020, when Airbus saw its production affected by the consequences of the health crisis.
Hampered by problems linked to the supplier chain, Airbus has been delivering steadily in recent months: 50 planes in September, 62 in October and 84 in November.
At the end of November, one of them, the aircraft engine manufacturer Safran, revealed that it had given priority to Airbus rather than airlines in order to help the European giant achieve its production targets.
-Deliveries are a reliable indicator of profitability in aviation because airlines pay the majority of the bill when they take possession of the planes.
Revenue and other financial indicators will be revealed on February 20 during the presentation of Airbus’ annual results.
“The year 2024 confirmed sustained demand for new aircraft. […] We have seen phenomenal momentum in our widebody aircraft order book, strengthening our leading position in the single-aisle market,” emphasized Christian Scherer.
Of 766 aircraft delivered in 2024, 677 are single-aisle aircraft, including 232 A320neo and 361 A321neo.
He welcomed “significant firsts” such as the very first delivery of the A321XLR to the Spanish company Iberia as well as the first deliveries of the A330neo and A350 “to several customers worldwide”.
On the orders side, however, the results were more modest: 826 net orders including 82 A330s and 142 A350s, far from the historical record established in 2023 (2094 net orders).
Airbus’ order book of 8,658 aircraft represents at the current rate more than 10 years of production.
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