In the face of the global economic recession, Airbus does not expect to reach its previously predicted 300 new orders this year and has switched its efforts to retaining as much of its order backlog as possible. Nevertheless, the EADS subsidiary believes the downturn in airline traffic is close to the bottom and that gradual economic recovery next year will be accompanied by improved market prospects. If the European airframer’s early-2009 sales performance–30 gross orders during the January-April period–is maintained through the year the total will be well below expectations, according to COO for customers John Leahy.
Consequently, Airbus is trying to keep production as stable as possible and expects that A320 build rates, set to fall from 36 per month to 34 in October, could return to current levels by the end of next year. Following the huge numbers of aircraft ordered before the worldwide downturn, Airbus production remains overbooked for the next 12 months at least and the manufacturer is studying when and by how much it could increase A320 and currently frozen A330 rates in late 2010 or soon after.
