Airbus Adds Only 11 Orders In April

Photo: Airbus

Airbus has disclosed its April orders and deliveries, with the manufacturer's filings revealing that during the month, it only added two orders totaling 11 aircraft. During April, the plane maker’s customers welcomed 56 aircraft, or 15 fewer than in March, with the company totaling 192 deliveries in 2025.

Pair of orders

On May 7, Airbus published its orders and deliveries up to April 30, with the manufacturer disclosing that during the month, it had booked two orders totaling 11 aircraft. China Airlines, which initially announced the order in December 2024, purchased ten A350-1000s, while an undisclosed customer added a single A321neo aircraft to the plane maker’s books.

No airline canceled any orders during the month, resulting in Airbus’ net orders numbering 215 at the end of April. So far in 2025, the European manufacturer has removed 76 aircraft from its backlog: one A220-100 and 75 A320neo.

72 of the latter aircraft, which, as FlightGlobal previously reported, were attributed to Go First, the now-dissolved Indian low-cost carrier that had blamed Pratt & Whitney for its woes. In 2023, the engine maker fired back, saying that the airline had a tendency to miss payments. (My previous report for AeroTime.)

Nevertheless, total net orders in 2025 so far include 70 A320neo, 164 A321neo, ten A330-900, eight A350F, 12 A350-900, and 27 A350-100, totaling 215 aircraft being added to its backlog.

While it remains unclear what happened to Go First’s production slots, it would not be a difficult task for Airbus to reassign these to other customers, considering the queue of airlines waiting for their A320neo family aircraft, if it had not done so already.

Deliveries slowing down

On the other hand, although Airbus delivered 56 aircraft in April, its delivery pace actually slowed down during the month. In March, the plane maker’s customers introduced 71 aircraft, or 15 more.

April deliveries include one A220-100 (the second of the year), six A220-300, one A319neo (the fifth of the year), 15 A320neo, 27 A321neo, two A330-900 (six so far in 2025), three A350-900, and one A350-1000 to Etihad Airways, which was the second aircraft of the type to be delivered this year.

The other A350-1000 was handed over to Japan Airlines, which welcomed the widebody on January 2. Airbus had an average of 48 aircraft deliveries per month, with the plane maker totaling 192 deliveries on April 30.

Split per month, the manufacturer delivered 25 aircraft in January, 40 in February (including nine on February 27), 71 in March, and 54 in April. 25% of its April deliveries were completed on April 11 (six aircraft) and on April 17 (eight aircraft).

Backloaded deliveries

When Airbus announced its 2024 net profit of €4.2 billion ($4.7 billion) on February 20, the company also shared that in 2025, it anticipates delivering “around” 820 aircraft. When the plane maker published its Q1 results, including a net profit of €793 million ($895.7 million) on April 30, it reiterated its guidance.

However, the basis of its guidance published on April 30 excluded the potential impact of tariffs, which as of April 2, the so-called ‘Liberation Day,’ have been at least 10%. Donald Trump, the President of the United States, who started the tariff madness, paused larger, individual tariffs on countries – and the European Union (EU) – at least until July, following backlash from the markets and machinations within his inner circle. (A fascinating read about the latter decision in The New York Times)

“The Company assumes no additional disruptions to global trade or the world economy, air traffic, the supply chain, its internal operations, and ability to deliver products and services.”

Guillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus, said that while the company is ramping up production, the delivery profile will be backloaded, “reflecting the specific supply chain challenges we are facing this year.” This means that Airbus expects to deliver the majority of its aircraft in the second half of the year, possibly the last few months when the weather gets nippy, at least in Europe.

As of April 30, 2024, deliveries numbered 203 aircraft, compared to 192 as of April of this year. During the next eight months of 2024, Airbus handed over 566 aircraft, including a whopping 123 in December 2024, as it aimed to reach its goal of “around” 800 aircraft.