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Despite the ever-present threat of terrorism and the latest surge in crude oil prices which is causing ripples world-wide, Airbus – the world’s leading jetmaker – is gearing towards increasing jetliner output for its single-aisle, A320 Family.
The single-aisle family of airliners has had the best performance across Airbus’s product range last year when the company beat Boeing in jetliner deliveries. In 2003, Airbus revenue was Euro 19.2 billion on 305 jetliner deliveries, 233 of which were A320 Family examples.
“The market is improving. So much we’ve decided to increase single-aisle deliveries 20%, Noel Forgeard, the Airbus President and CEO, told journalists at the opening of a press seminar held in Toulouse a few days ago.
And while Forgeard did say that the production increase is to take place sometime this year or maybe even before year’s end, he cautioned that “nobody should make any predictions, for I won’t give any dates.”
Airbus nowadays maintains a healthy backlog of over 1.450 aircraft, or the equivalent of five years’ worth of work at the present output rate. An increased production pace at the single-aisle assembly (A318, A319, A320 and A321) lines would mean shorter lead times from purchase order to actual delivery.
Anyway, for all the higher work pace in response to renewed market demand, Airbus only hopes to deliver roughly the same number of aircraft as 2003 when it snatched 254 firm orders worth slightly more than 30 Bn US and handed out 305 aircraft. “This year we will deliver between 300 and 305 aircraft,” Forgeard stressed.
Growing once more
The number of people choosing to fly nowadays is similar to early 2001 figures and higher than 2000’s. “There’s no doubt we’re seeing a recovery,” the Airbus Vice-President Market Forecast & Research, Laurent Rouaud, assured journalists.
The recovery is such, Rouaud said, that the heartening market forecast made back in 2000 still holds, even if it might take one year longer to fulfill. By contrast, no one dared believe in the aftermath of the New York attacks less than three years ago that such a speedy recovery could take place.
Asked about the possible effects of the sustained higher price of crude oil on airline balance sheets, Rouaud said the effects could be limited. “The most this could affect traffic recovery is 0.6% of 2004 predictions,” he said, noting that energy experts are confident that crude oil prices will begin to drop in the second half of the year.
With an eye on the next 20 years, John Leahy, the Airbus Chief Commercial Officer, said the market was bound to request 16,463 new jetliners, most of which would be single-aisle – Family A320 or similar – for a combined market volume of 640 billion US.
It is precisely this segment that Airbus is placing its higher bet on with its 20% increase in production. Meanwhile work is proceeding at the Jean-Luc Lagardère assembly complex, located next to Toulouse-Blagnac airport, where the A380 - the world’s largest jetliner - is taking shape.
