Airbus said on Thursday that it delivered only 14 new commercial airplanes during the month of April. This comes amid the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, which causes airlines around the world to revise orders and postpone deliveries.
The 14 deliveries were made up of twelve Airbus A320neo family aircraft, one A330ceo and one A350-900. The company logged a new order for nine A320 from Ireland-based lessor Avolon, bringing Airbus’ net orders in 2020 to 299.
For comparison: in 2019, the European aircraft manufacturer delivered a total of 863 airplanes, an average of 72 per month.
This dramatic drop comes as airlines around the world are battling with the current crisis. As the demand for flights decreased by historic levels, airlines are taking action to limit their losses by retiring older aircraft ahead of schedule and postponing planned deliveries of new aircraft.
In addition, new workplace health measures to avoid the spread of Covid-19, usually initiated by local authorities, have led to a reduced production capacity at both Airbus and its US American rival Boeing. Some final assembly lines for aircraft were temporarily suspended for limited periods in March and April. For a short time, this included all of Boeing’s commercial aircraft production.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
