On Monday, a week after Boeing (BA 4.68%) announced its final tally of plane orders received in 2013, archrival Airbus (EADSY 1.28%) released its corresponding numbers for the year just ended. The upshot: Although Boeing beat Airbus in the numbers of aircraft actually delivered last year, Airbus still raked in more new orders -- 1,503 net of cancellations, versus Boeing's 1,355.
Over the course of 12 months, Airbus increased gross orders by a fraction of 1% over 2012 levels, recording 1,619 "gross" new orders, including:
- 377 A320ceo (conventionally engined) aircraft.
- 876 A320neos (new engine option).
- 77 A330s.
- 239 A350 XWBs.
- 50 A380 "Very Large Aircraft."
That's compared with Boeing's gross tally of gross order receipts of 1,531. Airbus noted that counting only these gross orders, and not subtracting the value of cancellations, 2013 was the company's most valuable year for order intake: $240.5 billion at list prices.
Cancellations did, in fact, happen, of course. Over the course of the year, Airbus lost 116 plane orders to cancellation. These included:
- Eight of the company's most expensive aircraft, the A380.
- Nine A350s.
- Eight A330s.
- 91 planes from the single-aisle A320 family (A318 through A321).
Curiously, the company reported two A318 cancellations, despite receiving no new orders for the plane at all in 2013. Presumably, these were cancellations of orders received in years previous to 2013.
Meanwhile, Airbus' backlog entering into the New Year now stands at "an industrywide record of 5,559 aircraft." Put another way, Airbus says it has orders to build $809 billion worth of merchandise at list prices, and enough work to keep it busy building planes for the next eight straight years, even if it never receives another new order.
