The Wall Street Journal
By Marietta Cauchi
Jan. 13, 2014 5:05 a.m. ET
TOULOUSE, France— Airbus, the commercial arm of aerospace and defense company Airbus Group NV, Monday said it landed orders for 1,619 planes in 2013, setting a new industry record and topping U.S. rival Boeing Co.'s annual order intake.
The commercial jet maker broke another industry-wide record ending the year with an unfilled backlog of 5,559 aircraft, valued at $809 billion at list prices, or eight years production.
Toulouse-based Airbus said it delivered 626 commercial jets in 2013, a company record, beating its previous record of 588 planes last year.
The tally was dominated by smaller models including 493 of its single-aisle A320 family. It delivered 180 of its A330 intermediate jets and 25 A380s, the world's largest passenger plane.
Airbus expects to deliver its first A350, which competes with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, in the fourth quarter of this year. "We expect to produce around 10 a month by the end of 2018 and break-even on the program by the end of the decade," said Airbus President and CEO Fabrice Brégier at the jet-maker's annual news conference.
There have been suggestions that Airbus will replace the A350-800 by putting a more powerful engine in its intermediate A330 model. Company executives said that they were considering all options and that most customers were converting to A350-900s or were willing to wait until production of the A350-800 became less constrained.
"This is not a priority—we are considering all ideas including whether there will be an A350-900 reduced in size," said Mr. Brégier. "The A350-800 with improvements will remain very competitive," he said.
Airbus said it would also start producing the A320neo from the fourth quarter and that it has enough orders for a monthly production rate of 42 between 2015 and 2018.
"We have now secured transition [from the A320neo] at a rate of 42 neos a month and if the market remains steady there is an opportunity to go higher before 2018 but that's an 'if' and no decision has been made," Mr. Brégier said.
Mr. Brégier said that the supply chain had improved a lot last year justifying a "gentle ramp-up" over the next couple of years "if we plan properly and there are no problems in series programs."
Airbus reiterated earlier guidance that it would break even on the A380 superjumbo by 2015 based on 30 annual deliveries.
John Leahy, Airbus global sales chief, said that he expected to finalize a firm order for A380s from Doric Lease Corp. during the first quarter following a memorandum of understanding signed at the Paris Air Show in June.
Last week Boeing reported gross orders of 1,531 new commercial jets for last year and, subtracting canceled orders, Boeing added 1,355 net orders. This compares with Airbus' 1,503 net orders.
The U.S. manufacturer delivered 648 jets during 2013, making it the world's largest jet maker for the second year running.
Source: http://online.wsj.com
An Airbus A380
Bloomberg News
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