Airbus starts notifying airlines about delays in some 2024 deliveries

PARIS: Airbus has started notifying airlines about delivery delays in 2024 for its best-selling A320neo family of jets, with several hundred of the single-aisle planes set to be postponed by as much as three months, industry sources said on Tuesday.

Airbus confirmed unspecified delays for 2024 in a statement to Reuters but said they did not reflect any worsening of supply chain problems since it revised production plans earlier this year. It reaffirmed production targets for 2024 and beyond.

“We already communicated in December on the impact for 2023 and are now talking about 2024 in detail,” Airbus said by email.

For airlines, the latest wave of notices marks the first concrete indication of supply constraints beyond this year, Reuters reported.

The delays particularly affect the larger and in-demand A321neo variant, which now represents over half of Airbus deliveries, the sources said.

Airlines and leasing companies have protested in recent months over a trickle of short-term delay notices amid ongoing supply chain problems. Airbus is now giving more advance notice.

“We try to be as transparent as possible to provide visibility for our customers,” an Airbus spokesperson said. Two airline industry sources said they were still struggling to find the clarity needed for network planning, however.

“We are still being drip-fed,” one of the sources said, adding the delays suggested supply chains were not significantly improving.

The delays do not so far include alterations to the schedule for 2023, which has already been trimmed back to target 720 deliveries, unchanged from an initial target for

last year.