15 Airbus A350s Have Been Ordered

Airbus has reported a lone order for its widebody A350 program as part of its April 2026 backlog update.

The deal consists of 15 of its A350-900 passenger jets, and is from an unidentified customer, with no other widebodies ordered during the month. The program, now the business’s flagship, continues to demonstrate the steady demand it has generated.

Net 2026 orders hit 405 through April, with deliveries totaling 181, an uptick in April off previous performance, carried by the A320neo family as expected, which continues to see its backlog grow.

But An Unidentified Customer: Why?

Unidentified customers on new aircraft contracts can be labelled as unidentified or private, and often include lessors or airlines that are delaying their public announcement but have finalised a contractual agreement with the planemaker for new jets.

The anonymity of these confirmed deals provides buyer protection during potentially sensitive negotiations. It is standard practice across all planemakers, not just Airbus, which, in this case, revealed orders for 15 of its A350-900s.

For Airlines and lessors, the request can help avoid competitive leaks, lock in discussions, and provide leeway to build up to an announcement, whether through investor calls or landmark trade events such as the upcoming Farnborough Airshow, where the industry’s eyes and presence can be felt.

Lessors will typically more often than not dominate a lot of the unidentified customers, with confirmation coming later down the line, sometimes months or a year after the deal is revealed in the monthly order book. Clues can also sometimes be found in the timing of the deal, the value, prior comments, research on airlines studying new aircraft, and the view to buy planes.

What This A350 Order Means For Airbus

Ultimately, adding another 15 A350-900s to the backlog, even without a public end destination for the moment, is another step in the right direction to bolster what is a strong backlog for the widebody program that has been developing over the years.

Widebody demand has skyrocketed following the COVID-19 pandemic, when airlines put the brakes on growth. Now, with more than ever the need for an efficient fleet mix, new orders have been coming in thick and fast, and more often than not at a pace that planemakers cannot keep up with, given their current production rates, leading to hefty delays.

With a view to achieving greater stability in monthly output rates, Airbus would like to ramp up the monthly rate to 10 per month, and beyond to 12 per month, in the next two years. This ramp-up is in the wake of ongoing delays in the 777X certification process and to address the growing backlog and customer delays it faces, too.

Any new deal, such as this one, is important as part of efforts to secure slots deep into the 2030s pre-ramp up, lessors already flagging how widebody availability is beginning to get scarce as airlines buy in bulk to ensure they have the planes when they need them the most, this putting pressure on planemakers to respond and increase rates.