Airbus deliveries accelerate in May as CEO plots pandemic exit

Airbus SE beat the previous month’s tally to hand over 50 jets to customers in May, inching closer to a planned recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The European planemaker picked up the pace with five more deliveries than in April, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. It had seven orders and three cancellations in the figures reported Monday.

U.S. rival Boeing Co. will report its own figures Tuesday. While it has outpaced Airbus on orders net of cancellations so far this year, fresh problems with the 737 Max aircraft mean the company is lagging behind on deliveries, a key predictor of cash flow.

Airbus is plotting a way out of the Covid-19 crisis even as the Delta virus variant first discovered in India leads to fresh infection concerns. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury announced last month the company is planning to gear up production of the best-selling A320-series jets beyond 2019 levels within two years.

With May’s tally, Airbus has delivered 220 aircraft so far this year versus 160 for the same period in 2020, showing why the company is optimistic about an eventual recovery in demand. There are some signs of a cautious reopening of global travel, with vaccine campaigns in Europe and the U.S. beginning to bear fruit and Europe allowing quarantine-free travel within the bloc.