Airbus delivered 61 commercial aircraft in March, nearly doubling the total number for the year so far, to 127. In February, the European airframer had handed over 46 aircraft to customers, bringing the total to 66 by the end of last month. March deliveries included 26 A320neos, 25 A321neos, three A330-900s (one each for Delta Air Lines, Condor and Virgin Atlantic) and two A350-900s (one each for Singapore Airlines and Starlux Airlines). Airbus data shows it additionally delivered five A220-300s, half of the single-aisle line's total output for the year so far. Air France received three A220-300s, while US carriers Breeze Airways and JetBlue Airways took one each. The airframer's March output was slightly below the 63 deliveries it had reached in the same month in 2022. In terms of new business, Airbus booked 20 gross orders last month. This includes an order of five A350 Freighters from an unnamed customer and Lufthansa's follow-on order, disclosed in March, for five A350-900s and 10 A350-1000s. A private customer ordered a single A319neo. Two A320neo orders by Colombian carrier Viva Air, which suspended its operation in February, were cancelled from Airbus's backlog. The manufacturer's backlog still includes 16 A320neo orders by the airline. By 31 March, Airbus had received 142 net orders for its commercial aircraft family this year. This comprised orders for 12 A220-300s, 27 A320neos, 60 A321neos, one A319neo, five A350-900s, 33 -1000s and four A350 Freighters.

United Airlines has cut back its schedule of flights connecting with New York area airports this summer to ease the burden on understaffed air traffic control systems. The Chicago-based carrier is also reducing summer frequencies at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport. The US major says its reduction in summer frequencies was enacted in support of the US Federal Aviation Administration's "efforts to reduce air traffic in the New York City area this summer". The FAA on 22 March issued a limited waiver of minimum slot-usage requirements for JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports in the New York area, and for Washington National, in order to give carriers "the ability to reduce operations during the peak summer travel period, which are likely to be exacerbated by the effects of air traffic controller (ATC) staffing shortfalls". United between 15 May and 15 September is reducing peak daytime daily departures from 438 to 408 at Newark; cutting frequencies from nine to six daily departures for its LaGuardia-Washington Dulles route; and reducing Washington National-Newark route frequencies from 18 to 10 daily departures. The carrier says the frequency reductions have not led to it exiting any markets, and that they will have no impact on international flights. It notes that despite the frequency reductions, it will fly 5% more seats out of the affected airports than it did in pre-pandemic summer 2019, adding: "In many cases, we’ll replace the frequencies with larger aircraft to minimise the disruption to our customers’ travel plans".

Airbus will establish a second A320-family final assembly line (FAL) at its Chinese facility in Tianjin. The European airframer says it has signed an agreement for the site's expansion with the Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Company and Aviation Industry Corporation of China. The accord was finalised during a visit by French president Emmanuel Macron to China this week. Airbus says the expansion is part of its efforts to ramp up A320-family production to 75 aircraft per month by 2026 across the group's FALs in France, Germany, China and the USA. In late 2022, the airframer disclosed its intention to establish a second A320-family FAL in Mobile, Alabama in the USA in the future. At its Toulouse headquarters, Airbus has started production at a new A320-family FAL in a facility previously used to assemble A380s. Two older single-aisle FALs are operational elsewhere at the site. The company facility in Hamburg, Germany comprises four A320 family lines. Airbus highlights that the Tianjin facility has completed over 600 single-aisles since its launch in 2008. The site's first A321neo was delivered in March 2023. In addition to the expansion, China Aviation Supplies Holding signed a general terms agreement with Airbus for the purchase of 150 A320 family jets and 10 A350-900s that were previously ordered with the airframer. Airbus predicts demand by Chinese operators for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft by 2041, representing more than 20% of total international airliner demand over the period. With the China National Aviation Fuel Group (CNAF), meanwhile, Airbus signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to intensify Chinese-European co-operation regarding "the production, competitive application and common standards formulation" for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). This agreement aims at "optimising the SAF supply chain by diversifying the sources and enhancing SAF production towards the ambition of using 10% SAF by 2030", Airbus says. It is a follow-up to an agreement in September 2022 between CNAF and the airframer to use SAF for commercial and delivery flights in China. "We are honoured to continue our long-standing co-operation by supporting China's civil aviation growth with our leading families of aircraft," Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury states, adding: "Airbus values its partnership with the Chinese aviation stakeholders and we feel privileged to remain a partner of choice in shaping the future of civil aviation in China."
The airframer notes its in-service fleet in the nation comprises more than 2,100 aircraft.