2022 First Quarter Report Chronicles Ongoing Battle of Titans

Airbus and Boeing have announced their orders and deliveries for the first quarter of 2022, and the news is good—in Toulouse, anyway.

The European aerospace consortium soundly outperformed Boeing in the first quarter of 2022, racking up 253 new aircraft orders to Boeing’s 167.

Airbus’s first-quarter deliveries also outpaced Boeing’s by a margin of 140 to 95. Both companies, however, surpassed their 2021, Q-1 deliveries by 20, and 36 airplanes respectively.

Airbus deliveries comprised: 58, A321-NEOs; 49, A320-NEOs; 14, A350s; 11, A220s; six, A330s; and two, A319s. Boeing, meanwhile, delivered: 86, 737s; five 767s; three 777s; and one 747.

Boeing is hampered by woes with three of its models: the 737 Max, which despite logging more than one-million fleet-hours after two, high-profile accidents, has not returned to commercial service in China; the 787, which has been plagued by quality control issues; and the 777X, certification and initial deliveries of which have been pushed back to 2025.

Airbus’s troubles, such as they are, derive primarily of its ill-fated, A380, the 251st and last of which it delivered to Emirates in December 2021. Despite its failure to endure, the A380–for better or worse—has secured a place for itself in aviation history.

Currently, Airbus reports a backlog of 7,070 commercial aircraft—of which 91% are narrow-body A220 and A320 variants. Conversely, Boeing’s backlog stands at 5,163 aircraft—of which 80% are 737 NG/MAX narrow-bodies.

Despite falling short of Airbus in the passenger aircraft market, Boeing continues to dominate the cargo segment with its 737-800BCF, 767-300BCF, 767-300F, 777F, 777-8F and 747-8F offerings. In 2021, Airbus launched its A350F freighter, thereby signaling its intentions to contend more seriously in the cargo aircraft market. To date, Airbus has only offered the A330-200F, which has not performed well in competition against Boeing’s popular 767-300F.

Boeing’s book-to-bill ratio (calculated as net new orders divided by deliveries) is 1.21. Airbus’ book-to-bill ratio is 0.94.

FMI: www.airbus.com/en, www.boeing.com