Airbus is one of the greatest success stories of European industry and technology of the last half century, a model of cooperation between countries and, therefore, an antidote to pessimism and the recurring feeling of decline of the Old Continent. The aeronautical manufacturer's figures in 2023 are spectacular, confirming its global leadership and its growing advantage over Boeing, the great American competitor.
The push of the Toulouse-based consortium registered a pre-Christmas acceleration and, in just one week, from December 12 to 19, it saw its order book expand by 537 additional commercial aircraft. For the year as a whole, contracts signed reached 1,938 aircraft, well above the record of 2013, with 1,503 purchase orders.
The dream of any industry with this turnover volume (58,900 million euros in 2022, with a profit of 4,247 million), mass of employees and technological and logistical complexity is to have guaranteed activity for a long time to be able to plan and optimize processes. . In the case of Airbus, accumulated orders reach almost 9,000 aircraft. That ensures work in its factories for almost 12 years. You can not ask for more. For the sixth consecutive year, the European manufacturer is the world leader in commercial aeronautics.
Among the customers who have opted again for Airbus at the last minute is Turkish Airlines, which has ordered 220 aircraft, of which 150 of the A321 model, for medium distances, and 70 of the A350, ideal for long journeys. Added to these firm orders is the option to acquire 135 extra aircraft if the Turkish company needs them. The contract is for about 48,000 million euros. The other acquisitions were made by the British low-cost company Easyjet, with 157 A320neos ordered for its fleet, the German Lufthansa (40 units of the small A220 jet) and the Irish Avolon, committed to acquiring 100 A321neos.
After the strong shock and doubts caused by the covid, the aeronautical market lives with formidable growth prospects for the coming years, a reality that collides with the need to fight against the climate emergency, despite the increasing efforts of manufacturers to develop highly sustainable aircraft. Boeing estimates that the total number of commercial aircraft in service in the world will double between now and 2044, from 24,500 today to 48,500 within two decades.
Unlike Airbus, Boeing is having a hard time getting out of the crisis generated by the pandemic, a situation that aggravated the already very serious structural problems suffered by the Seattle manufacturer, hit by delays in the release of models and very serious design flaws. serious that caused accidents. According to the latest calculations, Boeing's order book is 35% lower than that of its competitor.
Airbus has been able to adapt its range of products much better to demand, especially the medium-range models that consume less and pollute less. Boeing has suffered very painful mishaps in the fourth generation of one of its most historically successful models, the 737. Two accidents, in October 2018 and March 2019, were a terrible blow. The breakdown that this device – in its Max 9 version – suffered this weekend at the Alaska Airlines company, with the loss of part of the fuselage, has once again reignited doubts.
Airbus's main challenge is to increase its industrial capacity, its own and that of subcontracted companies, in order to meet customer expectations and deliver aircraft without a long delay. The risk of being overwhelmed by the success of your products is real. In fact, the delivery time is already excessive, between eight and ten years. To try to correct the problem, the network of final assembly factories has been reinforced, including Toulouse, to produce the most in-demand model, the A321neo. The manufacturing of these aircraft will reach full capacity within a few years with assembly facilities in Hamburg (Germany), Mobile (Alabama, United States) and Tianjin (China), a strategy aimed at extending its global primacy over Boeing.
