Airbus delivers 67 planes in June after slashing annual target

Airbus SE logged its best monthly deliveries so far this year as the planemaker works to resolve its supply-chain woes and pares back its order backlog.

The European planemaker handed over 67 jets in June, taking the half-year total to 323, it said in a statement Monday. That’s less than half Airbus’s revised annual handover goal, although deliveries tend to pick up toward the end of the year. 

Late last month, Airbus pared back its annual delivery goal of 800 planes to 770, citing supply challenges on a slew of parts from engines and aero structures to cabin interiors.

Airbus has long warned of the issue after the pandemic first upended the global aviation industry and then left it unprepared once air travel came roaring back. The planemaker also slashed some longer-term goals, from operating profit to cash generation to the monthly production rates of its all-important A320 model citing those challenges. 

The planemaker’s troubles come at a time when its arch-rival Boeing Co. is in the midst of deep crisis following a near-catastrophic accident on an airborne aircraft in early January. The US company has been forced to pare back output of its 737 Max that competes with Airbus’s best-selling A320neo model.