Airbus Maintains Lead as Top Planemaker Amid Engine Supply Concerns

Airbus Performance and Supply Chain Challenges

By Tim Hepher and Alessandro Parodi

Delivery Numbers and Targets

PARIS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Airbus deliveries rose 4% last year to reach 793 aircraft, the European planemaker said on Monday, leaving it on course to remain the world's largest planemaker despite recent industrial snags and a new question mark over engine supplies.

Engine Supply Issues

Airbus warned of a "continued complex and dynamic operating environment" as it posted deliveries edging past its revised goal of around 790 jets, which had been lowered from 820 last month due to a problem at a Spanish fuselage panels supplier.

Future Orders and Market Outlook

Airbus said it had won 1,000 gross orders last year, or a net total of 889 after cancellations: both higher than in 2024.

Boeing, which is due to issue its own full-year data on Tuesday, delivered 537 jets up to end-November, giving Airbus an unassailable lead in the manufacturing battle.

Although Airbus met its recently revised target, it remains 70 planes short of its 2019 peak of 863 annual deliveries.

In three out of the last four years Airbus has missed the original delivery target with which it started out the year, though the margin of underperformance has been steadily falling.

Analysts say that highlights how Airbus and Boeing, which is gradually restoring its own production after an internal crisis, face a supply chain still weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic that first hit the headlines five years ago.

"That illustrates an increasingly complex supply chain that they are not fully on top of," independent aviation analyst Rob Morris said.

Outgoing Airbus planemaking CEO Christian Scherer stressed deliveries remained on an upward trajectory and underlying demand was strong.

"The overall situation is much brighter now with a great deal less bottlenecks," he told reporters.

PRATT & WHITNEY ENGINE UNCERTAINTY

However, he noted that jet engines for the A320neo family continued to arrive "very, very late" in 2025.

"We see that this trend continues in 2026 and in particular with Pratt & Whitney, with whom we are still in discussions," he said. "It is an issue that we need to resolve."

Airbus has yet to reach agreement with the U.S. manufacturer over the volume of supplies that it needs "for the foreseeable future," Scherer said. Industry sources said such details would typically be worked out at least a year ahead.

Pratt & Whitney parent RTX, one of two suppliers on Airbus' best-selling series, had no immediate comment.

Deliveries are closely watched since that is the point when planemakers generate most of their cash. Last year's handovers included 607 of Airbus' A320neo cash cow, up 1%.

Wide-body deliveries also rose 1% led by the A330, though those of the flagship A350 - hit by separate delays in receiving fuselage sections - were flat at 57 jets.

The smallest model, A220, rose 24% to 93 deliveries.

Among new business, Airbus booked several dozen orders from China in December, though these fell short of its earlier hopes of grabbing a huge new order for as many as 500 planes, despite some reports that the mega-deal had already been finalised.

Industry sources say Airbus has renewed efforts to close a deal with AirAsia for some 100 A220s, possibly as early as this month. Scherer said "watch this space" without elaborating.

Even so, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has conceded likely defeat on new orders after a wave of Boeing deals coinciding partly with foreign tours by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Scherer, a veteran Airbus insider whose father took part in the 1972 maiden flight as Europe took aim at U.S. dominance of commercial aviation, welcomed a return towards stability in the global jet market after the prolonged upheaval at Boeing.

Seen by observers as relatively pragmatic on the industry's periodic market-share battles to avoid accelerating the rise of new competitors like China, Scherer welcomed Boeing's rebound.

"It's actually quite motivating to be honest to see Boeing back in the Major League after so many years; it's a good thing. This competition is good," he told reporters.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Tomasz Janowski and Diane Craft)