FILE PHOTO: An Airbus A350 takes off at the aircraft builder’s headquarters in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
January 1, 2020
PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s Airbus <AIR.PA> handed over a record number of aircraft in December to exceed its 2019 delivery target while seizing the industry’s crown as no.1 planemaker from troubled U.S. rival Boeing <BA.N>, airport and tracking sources said on Wednesday.
Airbus, which had been forced by industrial problems to cut its 2019 delivery goal by 2-3% in October, deployed extra resources until hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve to reach 863 aircraft for the year, up 7.9% from 800 in 2018, they added.
Airbus declined to comment on the figures, which must be audited before they can be finalised and published.
Planemakers receive most of their revenues when aircraft are delivered – minus previous progress payments – so the delivery performance is always closely monitored by investors.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, editing by Louise Heavens)