Airbus to Cut Aircraft Production by a Third

Airbus has revised its production rates downwards as it tries to adapt to the current market environment.

 In Q1 2020, Airbus booked 290 net commercial aircraft orders and delivered 122 aircraft. A further 60 aircraft were produced during the quarter, however they remain undelivered due to the evolving COVID19 pandemic.

Thirty six aircraft were delivered in March across the different aircraft families, down from 55 in February 2020. This reflects customer requests to defer deliveries, as well as other factors.

The new average production rates going forward have been set as follows:

A320 to rate 40 per month (down about 33%);
A330 to rate 2 per month (down over 40%); and
A350 to rate 6 per month (down about 40%).

This represents a reduction of the pre-COVID19 average rates of over one third.

“The impact of this pandemic is unprecedented,” said Airbus Chief Executive Officer, Guillaume Faury. “At Airbus, protecting our people and supporting the fight against the virus are our chief priorities at this time. We are in constant dialogue with our customers and supply chain partners as we are all going through these difficult times together. Our airline customers are heavily impacted by the COVID19 crisis. We are actively adapting our production to their new situation and working on operational and financial mitigation measures to face reality.”

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