American planemaker Boeing (BA, Financial) boasted of higher first-quarter orders and deliveries in comparison to its European counterpart Airbus (EADSY, Financial). The latter experienced poor net orders owing to cancellations and delays from its aircraft engine partner Pratt & Whitney.
Boeing has always outpaced Airbus as far as deliveries are concerned, but this time the Chicago-based jetmaker left behind its rival in terms of cracking new deals and recording higher orders. The chart below gives an overview of the first-quarter figures.
Order and Delivery stats for Q1 2016
Airbus' order status
Airbus delivered 125 planes in the first quarter. The Toulouse, France-based planemaker’s deliveries were impeded by the engine issues of the re-engineered A320neo. According to industry sources, engine deliveries from Pratt and Whitney slowed owing to software and startup time issues. As a measure to improve the annual delivery count, Airbus is working to ramp up deliveries of the new A350. It delivered three A350s in March and intends to dispatch more than 50 this year. The company delivered two of its struggling superjumbos, the A380.
However, it also witnessed the cancellation of a couple of A380s by Air Austral. The company expects to record more A380 cancellations in the near future. Virgin Atlantic Airways has said that it is going to shed its plans to take deliveries of six A380s that it ordered earlier. Demand for jumbo jets has been a big challenge for both the planemakers. While Airbus has been struggling to sell the double-decker, Boeing has been trying to revive the demand for its 747.
In terms of order flow, the company accumulated only 32 gross orders. The number shrinks to a meager 10 after adjusting for cancellations of 22 planes for the first three months of the year. This happens to be the lowest first-quarter order flow for the company in five years. The feeble order flow in the first quarter has left the jetmaker to scramble for the rest of the year to meet its order target. Late in January, Iran Air disclosed its intention to buy 118 Airbus planes, which includes 12 A380s. However, this does not seem to have finalized since it’s not appearing in the company’s order book yet. Airbus closed last month with an unfilled order backlog of 6,716 planes.
Boeing’s order status
Boeing delivered 176 aircraft during the first quarter, down 4.3% compared to last year's first quarter. The decline is on account of weak demand for the company’s long-range 764 and the jumbo jet 747. The bread-and-butter aircraft program, the narrow-body 737, accounted for the majority of the deliveries at 121 but was flat compared to last year. The company had delivered 737s to United Airlines, and industry sources have it that it was sold at hefty discounts.
Deliveries of Boeing’s revolutionary airplane, the 787 Dreamliner, continue to be stable at 30; it was the second-best-selling plane. The company delivered 23 777s during the period compared with a dispatch of 24 units in the same period last year.
As far as orders are concerned, the jetmaker has recorded 140 gross orders and 122 units net of cancellations through April 5. The company saw 14 737 cancellations and four order withdrawals for the 787 Dreamliner.
The company looks poised to comfortably beat Airbus in deliveries this year, too, and retain the title of the world’s largest planemaker. The company expects to deliver around 740 to 745 planes this year while Airbus expects to deliver 650 planes. Airbus expects its deliveries to pick up in the latter half of the year, while Boeing expects to see a slowdown in annual deliveries owing to its transition to the 737 Max.
