Airbus dominates single-aisle jet production driving rebound in sector

The multibillion-dollar business of making passenger jets has enjoyed a powerful rebound since the height of the pandemic last year.

And of the world’s two largest plane manufacturers, the clear leader in the recovery has been Europe’s champion Airbus over US rival Boeing.

The two aerospace giants ended 2021 with a combined tally of 951 deliveries. That was 32 per cent higher than in 2020, although still 41 per cent lower than the peak of 1,606 in 2018.

The main driver of the recovery has been in the single-aisle or “middle market”, where Airbus already had a significant advantage before the crisis, as airlines have clamoured for its medium-sized A320 family of jets for domestic routes as well as, increasingly, international travel.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

Low-cost carriers including America’s jetBlue and Aer Lingus are flying the A321LR, a long range medium-sized plane, across the Atlantic. Airbus’s new, even longer range narrow body, the A321XLR, will make its first flight this year, ahead of delivery to customers in 2023.

The European planemaker’s A321 represented 46 per cent of the A320 family deliveries in 2021, according to data from consultancy Cirium.

“We expect this to exceed 50 per cent this year, based on current data,” said Richard Evans, senior consultant at Cirium, an aviation consultancy that tracks the world’s airline fleets.

“It would be the first time ever. There is more and more interest in that size and capability. Boeing does not have a competitive product in that area with the 737 Max 10 not yet in service.”

Richard Aboulafia, managing director AeroDynamic Advisory, is equally bullish that Airbus’s dominance will continue to grow in that segment of the market. “It is very clear that Airbus’s numbers in that area are really piling up.” 

Boeing has continued to be hampered by the fallout from the 737 Max crisis after two fatal crashes led to the worldwide grounding of the aircraft in March 2019, as well as more recently by production problems on its 787 Dreamliner wide body. The company has, at least publicly, shelved plans for a new midsized jet to counter Airbus’s dominance.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

Airbus, meanwhile, has been ramping up production of its single-aisle jets as it has sought to capitalise on the demand and the market recovery. The company has said there is a supply constraint for its bestselling aircraft.

China also played a role in the European company’s lead on single-aisle deliveries, according to Cirium’s Evans, with Boeing’s 737 Max not yet having returned to service in the country.

Airbus delivered 142 aircraft to Chinese airlines last year, but there were just two (787s) from Boeing, according to Cirium.

“China took jets. That is the interesting angle . . . So clearly there is more confidence in the China market,” Aboulafia said.

Boeing’s hopes of narrowing the gap with Airbus on deliveries will largely depend on how quickly it can resume them to China, its largest overseas market.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

This could be soon after a report on Thursday said the country’s aviation regulator, which was the first to ground the 737 Max in 2019, is close to recertifying the plane and it could resume commercial flights this month.

Much will also depend on trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

However, although Boeing did not deliver as many aircraft as it hoped last year, it is having more success with future orders.

It booked 765 gross orders, which excludes cancellations, for narrow-body aircraft last year, of which 749 were for the 737 Max as airlines started reordering the jet after its grounding.

It means the company now has a healthy backlog of contracts for the 737 Max, with 3,376 on order, suggesting Boeing may be able to launch a fightback on deliveries this year.