On Thursday, two weeks after Boeing (BA -0.39%) announced its final tally of plane orders received in 2012, archrival Airbus released its corresponding numbers. The upshot: Boeing beat Airbus.
Over the course of 12 months, Airbus increased deliveries by 10% over 2011 levels, delivering "a company record" of 588 aircraft -- but still lost out to Boeing, which delivered 601 planes. Airbus also reported that it beat its internal goal of landing 650 "gross" plane orders for the year, by pulling down 914, including:
- 305 A320ceos
- 478 A320neos
- 82 A330/A340s
- 40 A350 XWBs
- and nine A380s
Of these, cancellations subtracting from the gross left Airbus with a net gain of 833 aircraft orders for the year. Again, Boeing won out, announcing 1,203 net orders for the year.
The one slot on the scorecard where Airbus still beats Boeing, is backlog. According to the European planemaker, its "new industry-wide record of 4,682 aircraft valued at over US$638 billion" exceeds Boeing's backlog of 4,373 yet-to-be-delivered.
In a sidenote, Airbus mentioned that its Airbus Military division delivered 29 aircraft to customers in 2012, including 20 light and medium military transport aircraft, four P-3 (sub-hunter) conversions, and five A330 MRTT aerial refueling tankers. The company noted that its backlog of military aircraft stands at 220. The company further updated on the progress of its long-overdue A400M military transport, advising that function and reliability testing are well under way, with civil and military certifications expected sometime this quarter, to be followed by the first delivery occurring in Q2 2013 -- and a projected four planes delivered in 2013.
