Airbus Group SE managed to beat a company target for deliveries last year by churning out almost twice the average monthly number last month, people familiar with the achievement said.
The European planemaker reached a total of about 635 and handed over 79 units in the last month of the year alone, the source said. Airbus shipped 629 planes in 2014.
Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath declined to confirm the number, saying figures on both deliveries and new orders for last year are to be disclosed at a news conference on Jan. 12.
On the order front, Airbus had agreements in place to supply a net 1,007 aircraft as of Nov. 30, easily beating its target.
Boeing Co had won 743 net orders for last year, according to the most recent figures available on its Web site through Dec. 22, making it highly likely that Airbus beat its rival, unless Boeing secured an order for several hundred planes in the last week of the year. Boeing had handed over 709 planes through the same period, putting the US-manufacturer well ahead on deliveries, when the bulk of payments for a plane are due.
Airbus has three factories churning out planes: in Toulouse, France, which assembles widebody planes, A380s and single-aisle planes; in Hamburg, Germany, producing only single-aisle A320s; and also in Tianjin, China, which normally produces four single aisle planes per month. This year Airbus is expected to start turning out single-aisle A320neos from a new plant in Mobile, Alabama.
The European planemaker’s latest A350 model, which had its first handover in December 2014, achieved 14 deliveries last year, leaving it one short of the manufacturer’s full-year target of “about 15.” The planemaker handed over fewer than 30 A380s, though the specific figures for the superjumbo, as well as for A330 wide-bodies and single-aisle planes, were not available.
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