Due to the global pandemic Airbus found it had a problem with delivering aircraft dipping to just 14 deliveries in April 2020 so in a bid to keep deliveries flowing, Airbus developed an e-delivery system to help speed up aircraft deliveries.
The system, which allows customers to receive their aircraft while minimising the need for their handover and collection teams to travel, ended up accounting for 25% of the aircraft deliveries from the european airframer in 2020.
Although the numbers were significantly down on the previous year it demonstrated Airbus’ resilience and ability to cope with a changing global environment.
Airbus managed to deliver 566 commercial aircraft in 2020 compared to 863 in 2019.
Airbus Chief Executive Officer, Guillaume Faury, said: “Working hand-in-hand with our customers allowed us to navigate a difficult year. The Airbus teams, customers and suppliers truly pulled together in the face of adversity to deliver this result. We also thank our partners and governments for their strong support to the sector” adding “Based on our 2020 deliveries we are cautiously optimistic as we look into 2021, although challenges and uncertainties remain high in the short term.”.
Airbus Aircraft Deliveries 2020
| Aircraft Family | Delivered | Including |
| A220 | 38 | |
| A320 | 446 | 431 NEO |
| A330 | 19 | 13 NEO |
| A350 | 59 | 14 -1000 |
| A380 | 4 |
New Orders and Optimism
Despite the global downturn in the aviation industry Airbus still received a total of 383 new orders including 64 for the A220, 296 for the A320 family. two A330s and 21 A350s.
It did, however, see the cancellation of 115 orders as a result of airline air travel downturn. Emirates cancellation a large number of remaining A380s signalling the end for the superjumbo.
The airframer say it is is “cautiously optimistic” about 2021 and the future and more details of that optimism will become clear when Airbus publishes its full 2020 financial results in February.
The outlook is good news for Airbus employees in the UK especially at the sites in Broughton North Wales, where the wings for all Airbus A3XX families are made and Bristol.