Boeing and Airbus: 
Orders, Deliveries and Production 2023 Jan/Feb 2024

In the annual aircraft orders race, Airbus trounced Boeing in 2023. It recorded 2,319 new orders, some 60% higher than its rival’s 1,456. This was also its best order year: 30% higher than its previous peak in 2014. These figures were up by 115% and 56% respectively from the numbers achieved in 2022.

On a net basis, after taking into account cancellations and changes to the backlog, the disparity of performance between the two manufacturers narrowed slightly — but not by much. Airbus reported net orders for the year of 2,116 compared with 820 in 2022; Boeing 1,352 vs 774 in the prior year.

Both manufacturers ended the year with further record order backlogs of a total 14,814 (over 55% of the current fleet in service worldwide): Airbus at 8,598; Boeing on 6,216.

There were once again distinct differences in the performance of the two manufacturers' sales teams in 2023.

Narrowbody/Widebody

Firstly on narrowbody aircraft Airbus outgunned its rival yet again with a net 1,830 units ordered, more than double Boeing’s 883. It’s not just the fight between the A320 and 737 families — the workhorses of the short-haul markets — Airbus is helped by having the A220 (formerly Bombardier’s C-Series) in its offing and accounting for 142 of last year’s orders. Airbus has outperformed Boeing in this segment in each of the past ten years — having announced a net 8,844 narrowbody orders over the decade, 79% above Boeing’s 4,937 units — and boasts a backlog at the end of December of 7,197 A320s and 600 A220s compared with Boeing’s backlog of 4,799 737s.

On widebody equipment the fortunes appear reversed. Boeing registered 469 net orders, more than double the 190 reported for 2022 — its best year’s performance, and nearly two-and-a-half times the annual average of the past decade. It is helped by its tanker version of the 767 for which there were 30 new orders, while there were 126 for its 777 and 313 for the 787; and this was achieved in spite of some 15 787 and 26 777 cancellations.

Airbus registered net orders of 286 widebody units in 2023. There must have been a feeling of relief in Toulouse: in each of the previous three years it has recorded net cancellations (acrimonious public row with Qatar over A350 paint issues, AirAsia X bankruptcy reorganisation of over-ambitious growth expectations). There were new orders for 42 A330s, 285 passenger A350s and 15 orders for its yet-to-be-built A350 freighter. But there were cancellations for 37 A330s and 19 A350s.

Over the past decade Boeing has outsold Airbus in the widebody sector: total net orders for 1,924 aircraft over the ten years, more than twice its competitor’s 758, and Boeing had a backlog at the end of 2023 of 1,417 units compared to 801 at Airbus.

Regional disparity

Orders from leasing companies were once again at a relatively low level, accounting for just 9% of each of Boeing’s and Airbus’s gross orders.

Boeing’s intake of orders was relatively evenly spread around the world: 21% in Asia/Pacific, 18% in Europe, 15% in Middle East/Africa and 16% in North America.

It benefited from a handful of mega-orders: newly revitalised under Tata’s ownership, Air India’s fleet renewal programme generated orders for 190 737s, 10 777s and 20 787s (see Aviation Strategy, Mar/Apr 2023); Ryanair finally got the price it wanted and put in firm orders for 150 737s; Southwest likewise added another 156 737s; and, Emirates put its hand up for an additional 106 of the long-delayed 777X (it now has a total of 205 of the type on order, making up 45% of the backlog).

Slightly surprising was the order in December 2023 from Lufthansa for 40 737MAXs (plus 60 options) — the carrier’s first return to Seattle for short haul types in 30 years.

Airbus’s order profile in 2023 was skewed to Asia/Pacific (38% of the total) and Europe (31%).

It too benefited from Air India’s buying spree (210 A320s and 40 A350s), and was boosted by another massive order for 500 A320s from India’s largest airline, Indigo. Qantas usefully provided orders for 12 A350s under its “Project Fysh” international fleet renewal programme (balanced with orders for 12 787s from Boeing).

Notable narrowbody orders in Europe came from easyJet and Turkish, for 157 and 150 A320s respectively. Among widebodies Airbus picked up useful A350 orders: 79 from Turkish and 50 from Air France-KLM.

Deliveries

The previous cycle’s delivery peak was in 2018 (see graph) when Boeing and Airbus between them delivered 1,619 aircraft. (It would have been even higher in the following year had it not been for the grounding of the 737MAX in March 2019.) In 2023 the two OEMs delivered a total of 1,263 planes.

Boeing delivered 528 aircraft in 2023, but continued to experience “supply chain” issues. The 737MAX-8 had been re-certificated in late 2020 by both EASA and the FAA, and Boeing had plans to increase production of the type to 38 a month (from 31) and deliver 400-450 units in 2023. But then in April 2023, Spirit AeroSystems (one of Boeing’s suppliers) owned up to quality control issues: the problem apparently involved the installation of two fittings that join the aft fuselage made by Spirit to the vertical tail, which were not attached correctly to the structure of the fuselage before it was sent to Boeing. The company noted that the problem could have dated back to 2019.

In the end Seattle delivered only 396 737s (including nine 737-800NGs) during the year. The inventory of built, but not yet delivered 737s stood at 175 (including 35 MAX-7 and MAX-10) at the end of December, down from 250 at the end of 2022. Of these, 85 are due to be delivered to Chinese customers which Boeing hopes to be able to do during 2024.

Boeing had expected to increase production to around 52 737 MAX jets per month by 2025 (the same rate it had achieved in 2018), and had planned to open a new 737 MAX production line in Everett in the second half of 2024. That was before the recent 737MAX-9 problem, and the FAA has put a block on those ambitions. As quoted in the Financial Times, Michael Whitaker, head of the FAA said: “Let me be clear: this won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing. We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 MAX until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”

And it has still to get the MAX-10 certificated (now possibly not until 2025).

Separately on the 787 programme — of which deliveries had been halted by the FAA between May 2021 and July 2022 over certification issues — deliveries were once again stopped in Feb 2023 (but resumed a month later) after Boeing notified the FAA that it had “discovered an analysis error by our supplier related to the 787 forward pressure bulkhead.” It delivered 73 787s in 2023, roughly as planned, with a production rate of four a month. It expects to build production to 10 a month by 2025.

The remaining deliveries were freighters (and tankers): 18 767-300Fs, 14 767-2Cs, 26 777Fs; and, with the closure of the 747 programme, the last 747-8F (to Atlas Air).

In contrast Airbus delivered 735 aircraft in 2023, up 11% from the 661 delivered in the prior year, but still 15% below its peak in 2018. It too had supply chain issues, and was not quite able to build production rates as planned, particularly of the key A320 family of aircraft which it has been rolling out at the rate of 45 units a month since late 2021. The company delivered 571 of the type in 2023, equivalent to a production rate of 48 per month — well below the prepandemic peak of 60 a month. Airbus is working with its supply chain to increase A320 production to 75 aircraft per month in 2026 which might let it then attain the milestone of being the first OEM to deliver 1,000 aircraft in a year. Even at that rate, it would take eight years to clear its backlog.