Boeing’s 2021 Deliveries Fall Behind Airbus’

Boeing has delivered 103 aircraft in the first five months of 2021, compared to Airbus’ 213. 

Boeing has continued to have issues with the MAX and the 787 this year due to quality issues. Boeing’s inventory of completed, undelivered 787s grew to about 100 aircraft at the end of the first quarter, largely due to a five-month delivery pause that ended in late March. The halt was linked to post-production inspections and re-work to address issues linked mostly to out-of-tolerance fuselage joins. Deliveries resumed in March but were paused again after 13 deliveries—none since mid-May. The latest delays are linked to FAA’s scrutiny of Boeing’s shift to more reliance on analytics to guide its physical inspections.

But Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun is confident that 787 deliveries can settle in at a “robust” monthly rate once they resume after FAA is satisfied with the company’s process to evaluate and address production quality issues.