Skift Take
This is the fifth consecutive year that Airbus has delivered more planes than Boeing, but recent events make the gulf between the companies feel even wider.
Just when Boeing thought this week couldn’t get much worse, its main competitor has published a strong set of year-end figures. Airbus delivered 735 commercial aircraft to 87 customers last year, representing an 11% rise versus 2022. While it’s tempting to write off the delivery total as a post-pandemic purge of legacy orders, the reality is quite different.
Between Boeing’s well-documented woes, an enticing catalog of its own crowd-pleasing products, and a lack of meaningful competition, Airbus has arguably become a victim of its own success. As of December 31, it had an order backlog of 8,598 aircraft - more than 11 times the n