Jul 22, 2022 
Airbus aims to deliver 720 commercial aircraft, and Boeing as many as 500 aircraft in 2022 — both represent double-digit increases over last year. And both companies have ambitious goals to ramp production to a combined 110-120 A320neo and 737 Max monthly over the next few years. Executives for neither planemaker have said the increases will be easy, but see the targets as achievable.
Cowen & Co. analyst Cai von Rumohr also questions Boeing’s delivery targets. In a report Tuesday, he said the 500 aircraft target increasingly looks “like a stretch” and cited the planemaker’s weak February numbers when it delivered just 20 aircraft.
Asked whether Boeing’s relationship with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is delaying the Max, Udvar-Hazy said no and again pointed to the airframer. Boeing needs to “get their act together,” he said.
This is not to say FAA relations are not negatively affecting Boeing and its customers. ALC has no view on when the airframer will resume 787 deliveries, Udvar-Hazy said and called a summer resumption “optimistic.” The departure of FAA Administrator Steve Dickson on March 31 has left the agency a “headless ship” amid rework on the 787, certification of the 737 Max 7 and 10, and the 777X program.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury spoke here on TV:
“Orders always matter, but probably a bit less now than used to be the case in the past because we are constrained by the supply chain at the moment.
“At Airbus we have a very large backlog and the priority is to serve the existing clients. So we will be taking orders as well, but we’re really focusing as much as we can on getting things in order in the supply chain and being able to deliver.”
The target for Airbus deliveries is about 720 planes this year, and “we are slightly behind,” he said.
“We think we’re quite at the bottom of the problems. Things will probably get better moving forward, but we need to get more engines to put engines on all our planes and deliver those planes to our customers.”
With Covid, every industry is seeing resources aren’t coming back as fast so we had to bake that in. Now we see the weak links in the supply chain — engines are one, I think you’re hearing that from Airbus as well as Boeing.
