It has been a rivalry for decades: Boeing against Airbus. The winner was clear last year. For the first time since 2011, Airbus has delivered more aircraft than its US rival.
As expected, the European Airbus group chased its US rival Boeing 2019 as the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer. Airbus delivered a total of 863 commercial aircraft, eight percent more than in the previous year, as the company announced in Toulouse.
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Boeing has not yet released its annual figures, but only had 345 aircraft delivered by the end of November. Boeing has so far not been able to hand over more than 400 finished 737 Max medium-range jets to customers, as the model is banned from flying worldwide after two fatal crashes.
It was the first time since 2011 that the Airbus was ahead of Boeing. It was also the highest delivery number in Airbus history.
Airbus should also be well ahead with new orders. The company collected orders for 768 jets in the past year after deducting cancellations, 21 more than in the previous year. By the end of November, Boeing had even more cancellations than new orders. The order backlog was 84 aircraft.
737 Max disaster plunges Boeing into deep crisis
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Boeing has been in business since March 2019 in a serious crisis, After the two crashes with a total of 346 deaths, authorities around the world had prohibited passenger flights with the 737 Max. The aircraft is the most popular model of the US group. The type should actually account for around two-thirds of the approximately 900 commercial aircraft deliveries originally targeted. Boeing has long since canceled the target and is now temporarily also stopping the production of the 737 Max.
It is still open when the ban on flights will be lifted. With the development of the 737 Max as a fuel-saving new edition of the Boeing 737, Boeing had reacted to the success of the competitor model Airbus A320neo. The Americans, however, went beyond the limits of what was technically possible and, according to previous knowledge, led to the fatal crashes.
Airbus was also unable to meet its original delivery target in 2019. The group originally wanted to deliver 880 to 890 traffic machines, but later slashed the plan to around 860 machines. The reason for this was the new cabin equipment of the Airbus A321neo, the long version of the A320neo. The installation of the cabin requires significantly more time than previously thought.
In 2019, Airbus delivered 642 of the A320 family jets, 551 of them in the fuel-saving new edition A320neo. In addition, there were 48 aircraft of the smaller type A220, which had originally been developed as the Bombardier C-Series, 112 long-range jets of the latest type A350, 53 of the older model A330 and eight double-decker A380. However, due to a lack of demand, Airbus will stop producing the giant jet in the coming year.
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