Airbus is confident about widebody sales prospects despite ending 2022 with a total net order deficit for 55 aircraft for its A330 and A350 families. The European airframer’s order and delivery data for the year shows that while it received orders for 12 A350-1000s and eight-900s, the tally was reduced by 23 and 11 cancellations, respectively. All 23 cancelled A350-1000 orders were for Qatar Airways and deleted from the orderbook by Airbus as part of their surface deterioration dispute relating to the long-haul aircraft. On the A330-900, Airbus’s net order tally stood at -65 units after it received 19 gross orders and 84 cancellations. The only positive widebody net result was for the under-development A350 Freighter, for which Airbus received 24 orders. During a 10 January press briefing, chief commercial officer Christian Scherer described the A350F order intake as an “inspiring result” for the type development which was launched in 2021. Scherer asserts that the cancellations were “largely anticipated” and that “the global sentiment on widebodies is rather positive”. He acknowledges that widebody order volumes are “not huge”. But he asserts that Airbus won eight out of a total 13 international passenger widebody sales campaigns in 2022. “I feel pretty good about the widebody,” he says in regard to ongoing international sales campaigns.

Spanish airports are nearing a complete recovery from the pandemic as passenger numbers reached 98.1% of 2019 levels in December.According to the airports operator AENA, 17.9 million customers passed through the country’s airports it operates in the month, an increase of 40% on last year. In total 243.7 million passengers passed through the country in 2022, more than double that of 2021, and down by just 11.5% on 2019. The country has benefitted from a recovery in domestic travel that saw 83.3 million passengers fly within the country in 2022, just 3.8% fewer than 2019. International passengers were 15% lower than 2019, at 160.6 million. 2022 saw aircraft 2.2 million aircraft movements, representing a recovery of 93.9% on 2019, while over a million tonnes of cargo were transported, just 6.5% less than in three years prior.

Airbus believes the supply-chain constraints that prevented it from meeting its commercial aircraft delivery target last year will not materially improve before mid-2023. Chief executive Guillaume Faury said during a media briefing on the 10 January 2022 order and delivery numbers that the supply chain was currently at "a very low point", adding: "Maybe it has stabilised in the last month of the year, but there will potentially be more reasons for disruption." Faury cites energy-supply issues in Europe and the Chinese government's sudden move away from its zero-Covid policy as potential causes of further disruption. "What we believe is that 2023 will be another year of a very complex environment from the supply perspective," he says. "It's likely that the first one or two quarters of 2023 are a continuation of 2022." He notes that the situation remains "very dynamic" and requires Airbus to engage in active supplier management on a case-by-case basis. The European airframer increased A320-family production to 516 deliveries in 2022, from 483 the previous year. A220 deliveries meanwhile totalled 53, up three. Faury acknowledges that A220 production fell short of target. He highlights that deliveries of engines for the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G-powered twinjet represented a bottleneck amid wider supply-chain constraints, especially during the second half of 2022. Airbus had planned to increase monthly A220 production to six aircraft by the end of 2022 and to 14 in 2025. Faury says the airframer is "updating" the programme plan. "We are working hard to catch up and maintain the trajectory of the programme." He declined to specify a delivery target for 2023. In December, Airbus delivered eight A220-300s. It received 105 net orders for the A220 family across 2022. On the A320 family, meanwhile, Airbus continues to target 65 deliveries per month in 2024 and 75 mid-decade, Faury says. The airframer last year disclosed that the pace of increasing production would be slower than previously planned because of the supply-chain situation. Chief commercial officer Christian Scherer says the first available delivery slots for additional A320-family orders are in 2029. He notes, however, that aircraft previously ordered by leasing companies for delivery before 2029 are still available for airlines to lease. Scherer acknowledges that the lack of early delivery slots has affected sales prospects: "We could be selling a lot of more airplanes in that [A320] space if we had more capacity." But he adds: "We will continue to see A320 sales despite the long lead times."