Airbus logged orders for 22 jetliners in its best-selling A320 single-aisle jetliner family in March while delivering 62 aircraft during the month from across its A320, A330, A350 XWB and A380 product lines.
Leading the new business in March was KAIR Airlines’ firm order for eight A320ceo aircraft to launch this South Korean start-up carrier’s new low-cost operation, which is to focus primarily on services to international destinations in North East Asia from its location at Cheongju.
Six A320ceo airliners were booked by Hong Kong-based China Aircraft Leasing Group Holdings Limited (CALC) in March, along with transactions for three A319ceo aircraft with an undisclosed customer, two A320ceo for the Singapore-based BOC Aviation aircraft lessor, as well as two A320ceo versions for U.S. ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines and one A320neo for AerCap, the global leasing company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
Taking cancellations and conversions into account, the March transactions brought net orders to six aircraft for the first three months of 2017.
Deliveries during March involved 47 A320 Family aircraft, six A330s in the -200 and -300 versions, seven A350–900s and two A380s. This brought Airbus’ total 2017 deliveries to 136 jetliners through 31 March.
Taking the latest activity into account, the backlog of aircraft to be delivered by Airbus stood at 6,744 at the end of March, representing approximately 10 years of production.
The grand total of orders since Airbus’ creation reached 17,088 as of 31 March, with cumulative deliveries totaling 10,344 aircraft.