Airbus Takes Order Crown for 2013 While Boeing Sets Delivery Record
Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier expressed encouragement with his company's profitability "trajectory" during its annual press conference on January 13. (Photo: Airbus)
Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier expressed encouragement with his company's profitability "trajectory" during its annual press conference on January 13. (Photo: Airbus)

A particularly productive month of December for both Airbus and Boeing helped the world’s dominant airframe makers surpass commercial targets for 2013, leaving each with unfilled order totals of well over 5,000 airplanes. Airbus’s sales force saw gross order totals surge to 1,619 for the year, setting a new industry record for units by 11 and giving the European company its most valuable gross order intake ever at $240.5 billion based on list prices. Boeing, meanwhile, set a new industry record for deliveries, shipping 648 airplanes compared with 626 for Airbus.