Boeing and Airbus
Orders 2018 Jan/Feb 2019

Boeing managed to beat its arch rival Airbus in the order race in 2018. The total number of Boeing aircraft ordered in the year came in at 1,090 against Airbus’s 831. Even after cancellations and changes in the order book net orders for the Seattle based manufacturer came in at 893 units against Toulouse’s 747 (Boeing adopted ASAC 602 in the year which removed some 70 aircraft from the recognised backlog). 

Roughly 20% of each manufacturers' orders were from leasing companies, but there was a significant difference between the two in the distribution of orders by airline operators by region. 20% of the Boeing orders were for carriers in Asia/Pacific — the world’s engine of growth — against 9% for Airbus. But this mostly reflects a massive order from India’s troubled Jet Airways for 150 737s. 

20% of Airbus’s orders each were raised by carriers in Europe and North America against 10% and 13% respectively for Boeing. But then Airbus’s order position was boosted significantly by its acquisition of the Bombardier C-Series programme: Moxy (Neeleman’s potential new US operator), JetBlue and Delta ordered 135 of the (rebranded) A220. 

However it should be noted that 30% of the orders were to customers either undisclosed or unidentified.

As usual the narrowbody workhorses — the 737 and A320 — topped the list, accounting for three quarters of all the orders in the year.

Among the widebodies Boeing continues to make headway with the freighter versions of the 767 and 747, while its flagship 787 Dreamliner seems to be consolidating its position as the long-haul passenger type of choice with 136 new orders in the year. Meanwhile the 777, perhaps the natural replacement for aging 747s as well as older versions of the type, performed modestly well with 59 new orders.

In contrast Airbus experienced a relatively poor year for its widebody offering. A new order for 20 A380s from Emirates was virtually wiped out by 16 cancellations in the year. That order was put in doubt as Emirates re-evaluated its long term fleet strategy in the wake of continued intense capacity competition among the Super-Connectors. Airbus was put under further pressure following Qantas' decision in January to cancel its 8 outstanding orders and stick with the fleet of 12 it has. At its annual results in February Airbus announced that it would stop A380 production in 2021.

Nevertheless Airbus did achieve net orders for 40 A350s and 27 A330s, the latter increasingly seen perhaps as a short haul replacement for and freighter alternative to the 767.

Deliveries in 2018 were similar for each manufacturer with 806 units for Boeing (up from 763 in 2017) and 800 aircraft (against 718 in the previous year) for Airbus — the latter including 20 A220s following its acquisition of the C-Series programme from Bombardier in the second half of the year.