In climb mode: 2022 to emerge as another great year for Airbus

Airbus now offers a modern portfolio of jetliners, which offers 20-25 percent fuel efficiency benefits and attendant Co2 advantages over older generation aircraft.

European airframer, Airbus is looking to further build on its successes in 2021, to create another year of strong growth in 2022, which will extend its reign as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. 2022 will further cement the European aircraft maker's lead over rival Boeing, which is slowly recovering from the Boeing 737 MAX fiasco and has now been hit with production delays on the 787 and developmental delays on the 777-X.

"Our commercial aircraft achievements in 2021 reflect the focus and resilience of our Airbus teams, customers, suppliers and stakeholders across the globe who pulled together to deliver remarkable results. The year saw significant orders from airlines worldwide, signalling confidence in the sustainable growth of air travel post-COVID,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus Chief Executive Officer. “While uncertainties remain, we are on track to lift production through 2022 to meet our customers' requirements. At the same time, we are preparing the future of aviation, transforming our industrial capabilities and implementing the roadmap for decarbonisation."

Airbus now offers a modern portfolio of jetliners which offer 20-25 per cent fuel efficiency benefits and attendant CO2 advantages over older generation aircraft, and delivered 611 aircraft to 88 customers in 2021. This was a sizeable increase as compared to the 566 aircraft, Airbus delivered to customers in 2020. The recovery of the commercial aviation market can also be gauged by the fact that 29 customers placed 771 gross orders (507 net) for Airbus aircraft in 2021, which was double of its gross order intake as compared to 2020. The company's order backlog at the end of 2021 stood at 7,082 aircraft. Boeing could only deliver 340 commercial aircraft in 2021, out of which 99 were delivered in Q4.

ON A HIGH NOTE