European aerospace giant Airbus SE delivered around 49 aircraft in February, bringing the total for the year to 79, industry insiders told Reuters. Despite persistent supply chain snarls, Airbus aims to increase aircraft production throughout the year. Meanwhile, its rival Boeing Co. has plunged into a crisis following a near-catastrophic accident earlier this year, which has capped jet production.
Airbus' 79 jets delivered so far this year puts it 20% higher than its performance at the same point last year. This means Airbus continues to outpace Boeing and expand its market share as the world's premier jet producer.
In the latest annual earnings report, Airbus signaled that it would increase jet deliveries to about 800 for the full year, 65 more than in 2023. Analysts had estimated the goal to reach about 825 units.
"We progressed on our production ramp-up against a backdrop of an operating environment that remains complex and affected by supply chain challenges and geopolitical conflicts so at the end that's quite an achievement in my view," CEO Guillaume Faury told analysts last month during an earnings call.
Last year, Airbus pulled in a record 2,094 commercial aircraft orders, primarily due to a massive surge in demand for narrow-body and midsize jets in Asia and other emerging markets. That sent the company's backlog to 8,598 commercial aircraft.
In comparison, Boeing delivered 528 commercial airplanes and secured 1,576 net orders last year.
Meanwhile, Boeing has been forced by the Federal Aviation Administration to cap its jet deliveries following the incident in early January in which a door panel ripped off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane. The cap puts the company at a disadvantage versus Airbus.
And this is why Boeing shares are lagging behind.
Also in the earnings call, Faury told investors: "It cannot be quantity over quality ... We don't want to deliver a number of planes. We want to deliver a number of planes that are of high quality and safe."
Boeing could learn a thing or two from Airbus.
