The depth of the issues facing US aerospace giant Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes business, and the scale of the lead taken by its arch-rival, Europe-based Airbus, came sharply into focus with the release on Tuesday of Boeing’s airliner (and freighter) delivery numbers for last year. Airbus’ equivalent figures were released last Thursday (January 9). Boeing delivered a total of 348 airliners last year, while Airbus’ total was 766, more than twice as many.

Boeing’s deliveries were made up of 265 single-aisle 737s, 18 767s, 14 777s and 51 787s (the latter three models all being wide-body types). Airbus deliveries were made up of 75 A220-family, 602 A320-family, 32 A330-family, and 57 A350-family aircraft. The A220s were smaller single-aisle aircraft, the A320-family were “standard” single-aisle aircraft, and the other types were all wide-bodies.

Interestingly, the category in which the gap between the two aerospace giants was narrowest was next-generation, predominantly composite, wide-body airliners, namely the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350, with 51 of the former and 57 of the latter being delivered last year.

In its release, Airbus also reported that it had secured 878 gross, or 826 net, orders last year. The Boeing release did not give figures for orders achieved last year.

“2024 confirmed sustained demand for new aircraft,” affirmed Airbus Commercial Aircraft CEO Christian Scherer. “We won key customer decisions with most important customers and saw phenomenal momentum for our widebody orderbook, complementing our leading position in the single-aisle market. On deliveries, we kept our trajectory and celebrated several landmark firsts. These include the first ever A321XLR as well as first A330neo and A350 deliveries to several customers globally. Given the complex and fast-changing environment we continue to operate in, we consider 2024 a good year. It has been a massive team effort to deliver this 2024 result.”

Boeing released no executive comment on its delivery numbers.

As usual, the US group also released it delivery figures for its defence, space and security businesses. In 2024, these delivered 16 new AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, plus 34 remanufactured Apaches; four new CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, plus nine remanufactured Chinooks; six MH-139 helicopters; 14 F-15 Eagle fighters (of different marks), 11 F/A-18 fighters (again of different marks), 10 KC-46 air-to-air refuelling tankers, four P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft; two T-7A lead-in fighter-trainers; and two commercial and civil satellites.