April marked a number of milestones for Airbus’s order and delivery activities, bringing it to a new industry record backlog of 4,973 aircraft that corresponds to more than seven years of production.
During the month new orders for 83 aircraft were received – led by the largest ever Turkish Airlines order, comprising 57 A320neo-family (53 A321 and four variants) along with 25 A321 current model aircraft. The order brings total commitments for A320neo-family aircraft to 2,125 from 40 customers.
Airbus delivered 45 A320-family aircraft and 13 A330s in April. The company said nearly 20 per cent of aircraft deliveries in April were for Chinese carriers – six A321s, four A320s, one A319 and an A330.
Airbus also delivered an ACJ319 corporate jet, bringing orders for Airbus aircraft during the first four months of 2013 to 493.