Remeber when Airbus was trailing behind Boeing the American super commerical jetliner company ?
Well?
That IS gone folks…
With the pandemic receding into the background, Airbus is flying high and poised to pull away from Boeing as its archrival grapples with continued safety problems.
Deliveries of new Airbus aircraft are set to grow 18% to a total of around 720 this year, the company said, surpassing the 2017 level but still far from its pre-COVID record high of 863 planes.
“We have a lot on our plate for 2022,” chief executive Guillaume Faury told reporters on Thursday, after reporting record high annual profits. “Ramping up production of our A320 family will remain at the heart of our priorities, and we will continue to work closely with our suppliers to make it happen.”
By comparison, Boeing only managed 340 deliveries last year, barely more than half that of Airbus. It hasn’t even provided concrete guidance going forward.
That’s because the Chicago-based Boeing first has to complete rework or recertification for key aircraft families. Boeing has halted shipments of its 787 wide-body since last May owing to faults in the airframe, reportedly affecting parts made from carbon fiber composites as well as titanium. While it hopes deliveries of its 737 Max to customers in China can resume in the course of 2022, it said earlier this year the rate and timing remains unknown…..
Boeing delivered just 20 737 MAXs in February, continuing a trend that has the manufacturer struggling to shrink its inventory of narrowbody aircraft on hand—many of them accumulated during the model’s 21-month grounding that ended in December 2020….
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The FAA is issuing airworthiness certificates on each 737 MAX—part of the delivery restart conditions put in place following the model’s grounding and related delivery pause. Boeing accumulated about 460 737 MAXs during the delivery hiatus. Fleet Discovery data show it still has about 270 of them on hand.
With production on track to reach 31 aircraft per month soon, Boeing must ramp up 737 MAX deliveries significantly to keep its inventory winding down and newly built aircraft flowing to customers. Company executives suggested on a late January earnings call that a target of 500 737 MAX delivers in 2022 was realistic. Boeing has handed over 47 through two months, meaning it must average about 45 deliveries/month for the remainder of the year to approach its notional target.
The Seattle Times reported that supply-chain issues are to blame for the latest headwinds affecting the 737 MAX delivery pace. Any new issues obtaining parts or materials for new-build aircraft should not carry over to the 300-plus aircraft that have been on hand for months, however—including more than 200 completed in 2019….
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As expected, 787 deliveries remain on hold. Boeing and the FAA continue to hash out parameters for inspections and rework required for some 110 aircraft in Boeing’s inventory and the few new airframes rolling off the production line. Boeing is producing 1-2 787s per month while it focuses on addressing the production-quality issues.
A customer has not flown off with a new 787 since mid-2021, and issuance of airworthiness certificates—which the FAA assumed for a few airframes as part of stepped-up oversight on the program and plans to conduct once deliveries resume—stopped even earlier….
Note…
Boeing also is now stuck with 34 airplanes that where supposed to go to Russian and Belarus air carriers….
top B-737 Max image…CNBC
bottom B-787 image The Balance Careers