PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus reported on Thursday a record number of aircraft orders in 2023 and confirmed an 11% increase in deliveries, thus retaining first place among aircraft manufacturers for the fifth consecutive year against its rival Boeing .

Airbus obtained 2,319 gross orders last year – 2,094 net orders after cancellations – as airlines strive to renew their fleets in the face of the strong recovery in traffic.

The group said it had delivered 735 aircraft in 2023 with an order book comprising 8,598 aircraft.

Guillaume Faury, Airbus’ chief executive, said the planemaker, which analysts said had a slow start to the year due to strained supply chains, had seen “an increase in flexibility and capacity” of its industrial system.

Christian Scherer, Airbus’ former sales chief and now chief executive of its core aircraft manufacturing business, said the aviation sector had recovered more quickly than expected from the pandemic. Demand for wide-body aircraft has seen a particularly strong rebound.

“Travel is back and the momentum is strong,” he said in a statement.

Boeing, which has not yet recovered from the grounding of its 737 MAX aircraft for safety reasons and which subsequently experienced repeated production problems, said this week that it had delivered 528 planes in 2023 and recorded 1,314 new ones. net orders after taking into account cancellations.

The American aircraft manufacturer is experiencing new setbacks on its 737 after the loss of a fuselage part on board an Alaska Airlines aircraft last week.

(Reporting Joanna Plucinska, Dagmarah Mackos; Lina Golovnya, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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