Despite 2016 being an “unusually difficult year from a production perspective”, European airliner manufacturer Airbus Commercial Aircraft met all its delivery targets for the year, company president Fabrice Brégier told journalists worldwide on Wednesday. “I’m very proud to tell you we have delivered 688 aircraft, which is another Airbus record. We’ve enjoyed 14 consecutive years of production growth. In December alone we delivered 110 aircraft.”

Last year saw the company ramp up production of two new types in its product range – the A320 new engine option (neo) and the all-new A350XWB. Both programmes suffered difficulties, the A320neo with delays in engine deliveries and the A350XWB with problems with cabin fittings, including lavatories and some seats (both supplied by subcontractors).

“We knew we had a good aircraft [in the A350XWB], but we experienced more difficulties than we anticipated,” he stated. Nevertheless, the company delivered 49 of the new-generation airliners last year, a three-and-a-half times increase over the figure of 14 for 2015, in what Airbus calls the fastest ever ramp-up for a wide-body airliner. All deliveries have been of the A350-900 version. The first of the stretched A350-1000 versions made its maiden flight in November. (The second A350-1000 made its first flight on Tuesday.)

Deliveries of A320neo airliners came to 68. The company also delivered 477 current engine option (ceo) A320-family single-aisle airliners (for an A320-family total of 545), 66 A330 wide-body airliners and 28 A380 Superjumbos. The total number of deliveries was 8% higher than the 2015 figure of 635.

In terms of orders, the company obtained net orders for 731 airliners during 2016. There were 949 gross orders, of which 218 were cancelled; however, of those cancellations, 72 were of ceo models which were immediately replaced with new orders for the equivalent neo aircraft. So real cancellations came to 148, 82 of which were the result of an airline (Kingfisher) going bankrupt.

Airbus’ order backlog, 6 874 aircraft, is a record. Because of this huge backlog, a decline in orders - which company chief operations officer – customers, John Leahy, thinks will likely be seen during this year - will have no affect on its production rate. “We’re essentially sold out at the moment,” he quipped. “Both of us [Airbus and rival manufacturer Boeing] have enormous backlogs to draw down. … Right now, we’re overbooked.”

In terms of world market share (in terms of numbers of aircraft), last year the A320 family (both ceo and neo versions) secured 52% of net orders, or 607 out of a total of 1 157. “The A320 is the fastest selling airplane, the most popular airplane in the world today,” he affirmed. “It is the most popular airliner ever built.” Furthermore, the A320neo family has won 58.4% of the global orders for new-engine versions of single-aisle airliners. As for wide-bodies, the A330 and A350XWB jointly won 55% (124 out of 225) of the net orders for this category of airliners. 

The company is going to increase production of its A320-family airliners to 60 a month in 2019, and of its A350XWBs to ten a month by the end of next year. However, it is reducing its production of A380s to one a month. This programme has proven to be, in Brégier’s words, “commercially slow” despite the aircraft’s proven popularity with passengers. However, Airbus hopes to keep the Superjumbo programme at breakeven through further production efficiency improvements. Interestingly, at London Heathrow, A380s accounted for 6% of all passengers in 2014, 8% in 2015, 10% last year and are expected to be carry 12% this year. So the company is still confident of the Superjumbo’s future. “It’s the best aircraft to capture the growing traffic,” pointed out Leahy.

“All in all, we’re very pleased with 2016,” summed up Leahy. “A very good year,” concluded Brégier. “Good deliveries, de-risking the A350, a good start for the A320neo, despite some difficulties. We are stronger than ever.” The company’s delivery target for this year will be more than 700 airliners.