Boeing Co on Monday said that it set company records for commercial aircraft deliveries and unfilled orders last year, as it continues to ramp up production to meet demand.
Boeing said that it delivered 648 commercial airplanes last year, an increase of 7.8 percent from 2012, while its backlog of orders stood at 5,080, a new high for the Chicago-based company.
After booking a record 1,531 gross commercial orders, Boeing ended the year with 1,355 net commercial orders, the second-largest amount in its history.
Photo: Reuters
“With solid execution on our numerous production rate increases, the Boeing team performed extremely well in 2013,” Ray Conner, president and chief executive of the multinational’s Boeing Commercial Airplanes division, said in a statement.
“We delivered more advanced, fuel-efficient airplanes to our customers than ever before,” he said.
In the fourth quarter alone, Boeing delivered 172 commercial aircraft.
According to the aircraft manufacturer, three programs set records for deliveries in a single year. The company delivered 440 of the latest model of its popular 737 medium-haul jetliner, the Next-Generation 737, while customers also received 98 long-haul 777s and 65 new 787 Dreamliners.
During the previous year, Boeing launched two new airplane programs in the twin-aisle market: the 777X and the 787-10 Dreamliner, a larger version of the cutting-edge plane.
The company said its higher rates of production yielded a record number of airplanes delivered from its main production site in Everett, Washington, and sites in Renton, also in Washington, and North Charleston, South Carolina.
The corporation’s banner-year report came days after a key Boeing labor union narrowly approved an eight-year contract that keeps production of the 777X in Washington in exchange for cuts in benefits.
As a result of the union vote on Friday, Boeing will end its search for alternate production sites for the more fuel-efficient version of its best-selling widebody jet.
Shares in Dow Jones Industrial Average member Boeing were up 0.6 percent to US$138.41 in New York on Monday. The aerospace company was the biggest gainer on the blue-chip index last year, ending a solid 80.6 percent up.
Boeing plans to publish its fourth-quarter financial results on Jan. 29.
The firm’s archrival, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, has not yet announced its aircraft report for the past 12 months.
In mid-October last year, Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregiere said the company aimed to deliver more than 600 aircraft for the whole of the year.
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