Airbus global delivery reaches record high of 718 in 2017

BEIJING - Airbus has seen a new company record of 718 commercial aircraft deliveries to 85 customers worldwide in 2017, according to Airbus China Monday.

The European aviation giant has seen its global deliveries more than 4 percent higher than its previous record of 688 in 2016.

Its 2017 deliveries include 558 single aisle A320 Family, 67 A330s, 78 A350 XWBs and 15 A380s.

Airbus has gained 1,109 net orders from 44 customers worldwide in 2017.

By the end of 2017, Airbus' overall backlog stood at 7,265 aircraft, valued at $1.059 trillion at list prices.

Airbus has seen 15 consecutive years of production increase, and has four A320 Family plants in Hamburg, Tianjin, Mobile, and Toulouse. The company is on track to achieve a rate of 60 single-aisle aircraft per month by mid-2019.

It has not yet disclosed its deliveries in China in 2017, but announced that it will keep expanding its partnership with China.

By the end of 2017, the Airbus fleet in China's civil aviation market reached 1,546, covering about half of the country's total civil fleet.

"China is more and more important to Airbus. We have delivered more than 100 new Airbus aircraft for consecutive years," said Francois Mery, chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft China.

In 2017, Airbus reached multiple milestones in its cooperation with China, such as its first aircraft delivery to an Asian customer from the final assembly line in Tianjin, the inauguration of the new A330 CDC and the setting-up of its second innovation center in Shenzhen.

Airbus and its Chinese partners also signed a framework agreement on ramping up its A320 production rate at its Final Assembly Line in Tianjin to six aircraft per month.

The target is five aircraft per month by early 2019 and six per month by early 2020. The current production rate in Tianjin is four per month.

"Airbus has set a target of realizing no less than $1 billion of investment in the industrial cooperation with China," Mery said.