European plane manufacturer Airbus has suffered a significant decrease in commercial aircraft orders. According to the full-year (FY) 2020 financial results report, the company’s aircraft orders totaled 268 jets compared to 768 aircraft in 2019.
However, Guillaume Faury, the Chief Executive Officer at Airbus, stayed positive and said that the 2020 results demonstrate “the resilience of Airbus in the most challenging crisis to hit the aerospace industry”.
On February 18, 2021, Airbus announced that in FY 2020 its net commercial aircraft orders totaled 268 jets, showing a major decrease by 500 aircraft orders since 2019. As a result, the consolidated orders intake worth shrank to €33.3 billion from €81.2 billion in the previous year. Besides, the company pointed out that the consolidated order book was valued at €373 billion as of December 31, 2020, in comparison to 2019 levels when the Airbus order book was valued at €471 billion.
While having suffered a full-year operating loss of €510 million, Airbus pointed out that it targets to achieve the same number of commercial aircraft deliveries in FY 2021.
The plane manufacturer outlined that the significant decrease in the commercial aircraft value “reflects the higher number of deliveries compared to order intake, the weakening of the US dollar and an assessment of the backlog’s recoverability”, read in the Airbus statement.
However, the company performed stronger on its Defence and Space orders. According to the official Airbus data, the order intake for Defence and Space grew by 39% to €11.9 billion. Airbus outlined that the growth was mainly driven by new contracts to deliver 38 Eurofighters for the German Air Force.
“I want to thank our teams for their great achievements in 2020 and acknowledge the strong support of our Helicopters and Defence and Space businesses. […] Many uncertainties remain for our industry in 2021 as the pandemic continues to impact lives, economies, and societies,“ Guillaume Faury was quoted in the release.