On November 8, 2023, Airbus Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Guillaume Faury made a prediction that the planemaker would deliver “around 720” aircraft by the year’s end.
At the time, with a month to go before the end of 2023, Airbus’ running total stood at 623 deliveries, so another 97 aircraft needed to reach customers during December to achieve Faury’s target.
On January 11, 2024, Airbus announced that in December 2023 it had in fact completed 112 aircraft deliveries to 51 customers, bringing the total for the year to 735 – 15 more than Faury had forecast, and 11% up on 2022 figures.
If that was not enough good news for Airbus, it also announced that a record breaking 2,319 gross orders (2,094 net) had been taken during 2023.
The orders included 1,835 A320 family aircraft and 300 A350 variants, bringing the current backlog to 8,598 aircraft.
“2023 was a landmark year for Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft business with exceptional sales and deliveries on the upper end of our target,” Faury said of the news. “A number of factors came together to help us achieve our goals, including the increased flexibility and capability of our global industrial system, as well as the strong demand from airlines to refresh their fleets with our most modern and fuel-efficient aircraft.”
He added: “This is a remarkable achievement. My thanks go to our customers, supplier partners and all the Airbus teams who made it happen.”
Some of the largest orders for new Airbus jets in 2023 came from Air India, easyJet and Turkish Airlines.
Christian Scherer, Airbus’ newly appointed CEO, Commercial Aircraft, said: “We originally anticipated aviation to recover sometime in the 2023-2025 timeframe, but what we saw in 2023 was, alongside the single-aisle market, widebody return much sooner than expected, and with vigor.”
He added: “We have never sold as many A320s or A350s in any given year, not to mention welcoming seven new customers for the A350-1000. Travel is back and there is serious momentum!”
Boeing delivered 528 aircraft in 2023 and secured 1,314 new orders after cancellations.