Airbus soars to 72 jetliners in March despite Covid air travel plunge

TOULOUSE based Airbus delivered 72 aircraft in March, according to Bloom sources, stepping up deliveries despite the Covid-driven plunge in air travel.

The European planemaker's quarterly total surpassed the 122 aircraft delivered in the year-ago period pre-Covid. These deliveries will ease concerns about Airbus's inventory of undelivered aircraft, which stood at about 100 in mid-February.



Matching deliveries with build rates is vital for the manufacturer as it seeks to ramp up output of its flagship A320 family of aircraft during the third quarter.



Given a multi-year order backlog, Airbus has said it's more focused on delivering the planes it makes to customers during the crisis than securing new commitments. Nevertheless, this year the company has fallen behind US rival Boeing in terms of orders.



That trend continued in March, with Boeing securing a bumper commitment for its 737 Max from Southwest Airlines. The US airline had publicly flirted with the Airbus A220, a smaller single-aisle jet.



Reuters reported that Airbus deliveries for the first quarter may have reached or eclipsed the 2020 total.




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