Uptick Airbus ramps up deliveries in Sept

PARIS:

Airbus reached the highest number of monthly deliveries of passenger planes so far this year in September, but logged no new sales as crisis-hit airlines continue to bleed cash. The European planemaker delivered 57 jets in September, up from 39 in August, bringing nine-month deliveries to 341, down 40% from the same period of 2019, company data showed on Friday. The drop matches a 40% output fall triggered by the coronavirus crisis, with Airbus deciding last month to maintain the new rates unchanged. A significant number of jets were delivered from a parked backlog. Airbus axed guidance at the outset of the pandemic but is internally targeting around 500 deliveries in 2020 and is three quarters of the way towards its goal, industry sources said. It delivered a record annual total of 863 jets in 2019. Boeing this week cut its long-term demand forecasts for the first time in more than ten years and warned of a challenging decade ahead.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2020.

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