Airbus registered no new orders for the second month in a row, while the number of deliveries slightly rose to 36 aircraft, including four widebodies, in June 2020.
The vast majority of aircraft deliveries in the month, 31 out of 36, consisted of A320neo family aircraft, the European plane maker revealed on July 9, 2020. Among them, China Express received its first A320neo, while VivaAerobús welcomed its first A321neo.
While some aviation observers predict a bright future for A220, especially in the coronavirus crisis recovery stage, no such tendencies are yet visible in Airbus books. During the month, the manufacturer delivered one A220. The A220-300 went to Air Canada (ADH2) .
Four A350XWB widebodies were delivered to European airlines. Two aircraft went to Iberia, and one each for Air France and SAS.
As of June 30, Airbus backlog consisted of 7,584 aircraft, the majority of demand remaining for the A320 family airplanes (6,108 orders). Both A380 orders remained intact. Airbus books show that Emirates has not cancelled the remaining 8 orders, while one superjumbo is due to go to All Nippon Airways, where it would be the third ‒ and the last ‒ plane of the type in the fleet.
In the previous months, Airbus made 24 commercial aircraft deliveries in May, 14 in April and 36 in March 2020. Before the crisis, in February and January 2020, the manufacturer delivered 31 and 55 aircraft, respectively.
Meanwhile, April 1, 2020, remains the last time when the manufacturer logged a new aircraft order. Back then, aircraft lessor Avolon added 8 A320neo and one A321neo orders to its portfolio, boosting it to 240 planes (45 already delivered). The manufacturer also had no orders in February, but signed for 45 and 10 aircraft with two different customers in March 2020.
Reacting to the coronavirus market environment, Airbus announced production cuts in April 2020. The plane maker set the A320 production rate at 40 planes per month, while A330 and A350 rates were set at two and six per month respectively.