Airbus has released its official numbers for 2019. The year appeared to be record-breaking, at least in terms of aircraft delivered: 863 planes to 99 customers worldwide. 

The amount of aircraft handed over to operators and leasing companies in 2019 has marked the eight per cent increase compared to 2018, when Airbus also broke its own record delivering 800 commercial planes to 93 customers.

Worth highlighting that 2019 was a special year for the NEO aircraft and Airbus widebody programs.

Groundbreaking 2019 for NEO

In 2019 NEO programs had a special focus. 592 planes out of 863 aircraft delivered were NEO: 551 NEO from the Airbus A320 Family and 41 NEO from the Airbus A330 Family.

If we compare these with the NEO results in 2018, delivery records were the following: 386 NEO from the Airbus A320 Family and 3 NEO from the Airbus A330 Family.

Highest Number of Widebodies Delivered in a Single Year

In 2019 Airbus delivered 173 widebody planes, which is the highest number in a single year, according to Airbus. In 2018 the European planemaker handed over 154 widebodies.

The deliveries of 2019 were mainly driven by the A350 Family aircraft – 112 planes.

Although in the beginning of 2019 Airbus announced that in 2021 it ceases the production of the biggest commercial airliner A380, the airframer is still building the double deckers and delivered a total of eight in 2019.

1,131 Net Orders vs 363 Cancellations

In terms of orders, the 2019 was also not bad. The leading aircraft Family was, of course, Airbus A320, which secured 654 net orders. Especially, this segment benefited from the bookings for a newly-launched A321XLR program.

Also, Airbus enjoyed great success in selling its A220 aircraft, as the program collected 63 net orders through the year.

What concerns widebodies, the orders stood at 32 A350 Family and 89 A330 Family aircraft.

“Cancellations of 363 reflect specific airline situations in 2019 as well as the decision to end A380 production. At the turn of the year, Airbus’ backlog stood at 7,482 aircraft”, Airbus provided in a statement.