Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus has announced that its Commercial Aircraft (that is, airliner) business had a “landmark” 2023, in terms of orders and deliveries. Gross orders last year came to 2 319, with the net figure being 2 094. The gross figure included 1 835 A320-family single-aisle airliners and 300 next-generation A350-family widebody airliners. (The A350’s airframe is mostly constructed from composites and other advanced materials.)

The group’s commercial aircraft order backlog stood at 8 598 at the end of 2023.

Airliner deliveries by the group totalled 735 last year, an 11% increase over the 661 delivered in 2022. (The 2022 figure excludes two A350-900 airliners bought by Russian carrier Aeroflot, but which could not be delivered because of sanctions imposed on Russia.)

“2023 was a landmark year for Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft business with exceptional sales and deliveries on the upper end of our target,” highlighted Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. “A number of factors came together to help us achieve our goals, including the increased flexibility and capability of our global industrial system, as well as the strong demand from airlines to refresh their fleets with our most modern and fuel-efficient aircraft. This is a remarkable achievement. My thanks goes to our customers, supplier partners and all the Airbus teams who made it happen.”

Of the deliveries during last year, 639 were single-aisle airliners and 96 were widebodies. The single-aisle deliveries were split into 68 small A220-family airliners and 571 A320-family aircraft. In 2022, A220-family deliveries had come to 53, and those of the A320-family to 516. The 96 widebody deliveries in 2023 had been divided into 32 A330-family aircraft and 64 A350-family airliners. In 2022, A330-family deliveries had also come to 32, while A350-family deliveries had been 60.

“We originally anticipated aviation to recover sometime in the 2023-2025 timeframe, but what we saw in 2023 was, alongside the single-aisle market, [the] widebody [market] return much sooner than expected, and with vigour,” stressed new Airbus Commercial Aircraft CEO Christian Scherer.

“A big thumbs up to our commercial and regional teams, and importantly, a big thank you to our customers for their trust and partnership. We have never sold as many A320s or A350s in any given year, not to mention welcoming seven new customers for the A350-1000. Travel is back and there is serious momentum! I’m proud to say there are now 735 more fuel-efficient Airbus jets flying today, paving the way to our lower carbon future. It’s the orders we win today that will support us in investing in innovative and even more sustainable solutions tomorrow.”