Airbus will maintain its commercial aircraft market leadership

Airbus benefits from the strengths of employees and a global industrial system

Airbus will continue its commercial aircraft leadership in 2018 and beyond – building on the company’s record 718 jetliner deliveries in 2017 and 1,109 net orders logged during the past year.

This was the key message from today’s 2017 year-in-review webcast, during which achievements of the past 12 months were outlined by Fabrice Brégier, Chief Operating Officer of Airbus, and President - Commercial Aircraft; who was joined by John Leahy, Airbus Commercial Aircraft’s Chief Operating Officer - Customers.

“Airbus will continue to build on the strength of its people,” Brégier stated during the live webcast from company headquarters in Toulouse, France. He said the excellence of Airbus employees covers the full spectrum of activities – from management, sales and program teams to the personnel in production and flight test. This is backed by the company’s global industrial footprint – which has expanded beyond Europe with final assembly lines in China and the United States.

Production ramp-up and industry record backlog

Brégier explained that Airbus’ production ramp-up meets the company’s substantial backlog of jetliners to be delivered, which reached an industry record of 7,265 aircraft at the end of 2017. He noted the production output for its best-selling A320 single-aisle jetliner family remains on track to reach 60 aircraft monthly by mid-2019, accompanied by the increase in widebody A350 XWB production to 10 per month by year-end 2018.

Output of the widebody A330 will remain stable at six aircraft per month, based on orders for the current A330ceo version and this year’s start-up of deliveries with the new A330neo variant; while 12 A380s are to be delivered in 2018 as planned.

From the commercial point of view, John Leahy underscored Airbus’ strong market position based on its sales performance over the longer term.

He explained that in terms of net order intake, Airbus has been the world’s largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in nine of the past 10 years – winning 53 percent of all orders. In the single-aisle jetliner market, Airbus outsold its direct competitor in seven out of the last 10 years, capturing 54 percent of net sales; and has outsold the competitor in the widebody passenger aircraft market during seven of the past 10 years, securing 50 percent of net sales.