“2023 was a landmark year for Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft business with exceptional sales and deliveries on the upper end of our target,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO. "A number of factors came together to help us achieve our goals, including the increased flexibility and capability of our global industrial system, as well as the strong demand from airlines to refresh their fleets with our most modern and fuel-efficient aircraft." Guillaume added: “This is a remarkable achievement. My thanks go to our customers, supplier partners and all the Airbus teams who made it happen.”
“We originally anticipated aviation to recover sometime in the 2023-2025 timeframe, but what we saw in 2023 was, alongside the single-aisle market, widebody return much sooner than expected, and with vigour“, said Christian Scherer, Airbus’ newly-appointed CEO, Commercial Aircraft. “A big thumbs up to our commercial and regional teams and importantly, big thanks to our customers for their trust and partnership. We have never sold as many A320s or A350s in any given year, not to mention welcoming seven new customers for the A350-1000. Travel is back and there is a serious momentum!” Christian added: “I’m proud to say there are now 735 more fuel-efficient Airbus jets flying today, paving the way to our lower carbon future. It’s the orders we win today that will support us in investing in innovative and even more sustainable solutions tomorrow.”
Elsewhere, Boeing, in response to the ongoing 737 Max crisis, has appointed the retired US Navy Admiral, Kirkland H Donald on Tuesday, to advise CEO, David Calhoun on enhancing the company’s existing quality control processes. "Admiral Donald is a recognised leader in ensuring the integrity of some of the most complex and consequential safety and quality systems in the world," said Calhoun. "I've asked him to provide an independent and comprehensive assessment with actionable recommendations for strengthening our oversight of quality in our own factories and throughout our extended commercial airplane production system. He and his team will have any and all support he needs from me and from across the Boeing Company."
Boeing shares fell lower on Tuesday as analysts and a key customer voiced concerns that scrutiny of the planemaker’s manufacturing since a January 5 near-disaster with a 737 Max 9 could ripple through to aircraft deliveries.
Boeing shares fell as much as 8.4% in New York trading on Tuesday, while Spirit Aerosystems which builds most of the 737 Max frame, declined as much as 7.5%. The drop brought Boeing’s year-to-date slide to around 23%, the largest among the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Investors have erased a late-2023 gain in Boeing shares as concerns grow about the longer-term implications from the Alaska Airlines mid-air structural failure. Wells Fargo downgraded Boeing to equal-weight from overweight, citing an increased risk that regulatory checks into the company’s manufacturing quality will drag on deliveries — particularly the inventory of hundreds of already-built Max.
Similar concerns were voiced separately by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary — one of the biggest customers for the 737 Max — at an event in London on Monday.
“I think the risk is that there will be further delivery delays, that Boeing management will get distracted in Seattle or there’ll be new processes or something,” O’Leary said in an interview.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded most Max 9 jets, a measure it intends to keep in place until extensive inspections are complete. The air-safety agency is investigating manufacturing practices at Boeing in the wake of the accident, when a door-sized fuselage panel tore off of the Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff.
The FAA also said it will increase monitoring of so-called “in-service events” on the Max 9, and plans to audit Boeing’s production line as well as those of its suppliers.
Ryanair’s O’Leary said on Tuesday he was doubling Ryanair engineering staff onsite at Boeing’s factory in Washington and at Spirit’s campus in Wichita, Kansas.
The FAA is investigating whether Boeing failed to make sure a panel that blew off a jetliner in midflight last week was safe and manufactured to meet the design that regulators approved.
Boeing said it would co-operate with the investigation, which is focusing on door plugs for extra doors when those exits are not required for safety reasons on Boeing 737 Max 9.
“This incident should have never happened, and it cannot happen again,” the FAA said. “Boeing’s manufacturing practices need to comply with the high safety standards they’re legally accountable to meet.”
“We will co-operate fully and transparently with the FAA and the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) on their investigations,” said Boeing, which is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
Earlier, Boeing CEO David Calhoun called the incident “a quality escape.” He told employees that the company was “acknowledging our mistake ... and that this event can never happen again.”
Mexico’s Aeromexico and Copa Airlines in Panama are among the international carriers with the 737 Max 9s in the fleet. Aeromexico said in a statement that it grounded its Max-9s over the weekend in accordance with the FAA’s directive. Copa Airlines said in an updated statement that operations of its 21 737 Max 9 aircraft have been suspended “until further notice, as authorities finalise inspection requirements for their return to service.” The airline is following the airworthiness directive issued by the FAA, the airline confirmed.
Turkish Airlines, which has five Max 9 aircraft in its 400-plus plane fleet, said that it will withdraw the aircraft from its fleet “until the technical investigation process is completed and the measures requested by the authorities are implemented.”
While the FAA does not have authority over the operation of aircraft operated by some international carriers, those airlines often follow the agency’s lead.
The author is an aviation analyst. Twitter handle: @AlexInAir