Airbus Doubles-Up Boeing’s September Deliveries as BA Production Issues Bear Consequences

Though Boeing and Airbus shares have each struggled in recent years, the American aviation giant continues to languish under consistent production issues and slowing deliveries of its jets. Boeing’s monthly deliveries slipped to a two-year low in September, totaling just half of what Airbus delivered to its customers throughout the month. Boeing is on track to meet reduced expectations for its deliveries this year, but it is nowhere close to the pace at which it could cut through its backlog prior to the 737 MAX disasters that grounded its preeminent narrow body jet worldwide and killed 346 passengers.

This burden continues to hang over Boeing. Though the company managed to evade convictions of executives through large monetary payouts, years of fraud and mismanagement have left the manufacturer hard-pressed to get back on track. Sales are expected to have grown by 15% YoY in its third quarter earnings, but share prices have diminished significantly over the past two months.

Related Stocks: The Boeing Company (BA), Airbus SE (EADSY)

In the latest testament to the American aviation giant’s ongoing troubles, emanating from years of mismanagement and fraud, deliveries of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets fell to the lowest level since August 2021 last month. Just 27 deliveries of all jet models were completed throughout all of September, less than half of the volume of its European counterpart Airbus, which delivered 55 jets throughout the month. Boeing has completed delivery of 371 planes from January to September 2023, but European rival Airbus has delivered 488 aircraft over the first nine months of the year. Even with a diminishing pace, Boeing should at least reach the lower end of its current plan to deliver 400 to 450 Max jets this year, but that range was a reduction from an initial target of 500 deliveries. That used to be a low bar for Boeing, having delivered 568 jets through just the first nine months of 2018.

Despite the slowdown in deliveries, September did mark somewhat of a milestone month for Boeing’s order book, as its commercial backlog increasing by more than 200 jets, reaching a total of 5,172 units. Boeing said September was the first month since December 2019 that its official backlog surpassed 5,000. Through September, Boeing has booked 724 net new orders in 2023, but that still trails Airbus, which has secured 71% more purchases in over the same period, logging a year-to-date total of 1,241 orders. Airbus has outperformed Boeing for several years now, in terms of…