For the seventh year in a row, Airbus has beaten its rival supplier Boeing in delivering aircraft with a record 498 planes in total to its customers in 2009. This figure was 15 more than their previous record set in 2008. With an order backlog of 3,500 planes still to be manufactured, it looks like it will be the leading plane-maker for some time to come. The total value of this order book amounts to over £270bn, which is roughly six years of production.
All in all, airbus sold nearly double the amount of planes as its nearest commercial rival, US-based Boeing. Tom Enders, Airbus’ chief executive commented on the companies’ good fortunes “Considering the economic and financial environment we have done rather well in 2009… (however) we are not out of the woods yet.”
‘The woods’ he refers to may have something to do with the A400M, which is a military plane that has caused no end of problems for the company. He said “We made a big mistake when we (signed) contracts for this aircraft six or seven years ago. If you make mistakes, don’t repeat them. We should not again take a decision which would lead us to further problems in the years to come.”