Airbus Raises Workhorse A320 Production to Keep Up With Demand
- Airbus raises A320 production to surpass Boeing's 737
- Backlog for A380 Superjumbo dwindles amid three-year drought
An Airbus A350 XWB passenger aircraft stands on the final assembly line at the Airbus factory in Toulouse.
Photographer: Balint Porneczi/BloombergAirbus Group SE’s production plans highlight the widening split between its workhorse model and its flagship plane, which is at risk of ending a third year without a new airline order.
Airbus will lift output of the A320 single-aisle plane to 60 a month by mid-2019, a record for any airline manufacturer and twice as many as it plans for the giant A380 in an entire year. The Toulouse, France-based company will build an additional plant in Hamburg to help accommodate booming demand for the series that seats 124 to 240 people. At the other end of the spectrum, the 550-seat A380 superjumbo will see output trail off in coming years, going to as few as 20 by 2017 from around 30 annually, as the backlog runs down.