Airbus Has Another Bad Month

August represented yet another challenging month for European manufacturer Airbus in what is now essentially becoming a full year of obstacles.

Based on preliminary data shared by industry sources and analysts who have tracked the planemakers’ performance, deliveries reached 60 for August.

While this figure is not inherently bad, and does represent an increase from the amount shipped off for the same month one year prior, it still sees the business lag behind 2024 performance.

To date, the figure would put Airbus at 433 aircraft deliveries, which is approximately 3% behind target. With a targeted delivery figure of 820 for 2025, there are grave concerns about achieving this goal.

For Airbus to hit its yearly delivery target, it would for the remainder of the year simply hit record levels of output, something that is viewed as unrealistic given the hurdles already facing the business.

Despite the adversity, Airbus has, as of July, remained adamant that it’ll continue targeting 820 commercial aircraft deliveries this year, which is a steep rise from the 766 deliveries in 2024.

Additionally, each year, the planemaker has looked to set a delivery target. Still, it has been forced to revise the figure, typically more towards the beginning of the year when it becomes evident that the full-year forecast will not pan out as intended.

The Challenges At Airbus

For Airbus, 2025 has been marked by operational challenges, which have impacted their ability to produce planes at a rate not only to meet yearly delivery forecasts but also to address the growing backlog.

As customers await their new planes, for Airbus, one of the most recent challenges has been dealing with engine manufacturers Pratt & Whitney and CFM.

The delayed delivery of new engines means that aircraft ready for delivery cannot see their whole production process completed. As airlines look for spare aircraft themselves to cover those sent in for maintenance, it creates a bottleneck.

For the planemaker, there’s only so much that can be done in the meantime to get planes primed for delivery. What almost completed aircraft are known as without engines are gliders.

Gliders are standard across many factories around the world, and certainly something Airbus is managing with the hopes that new engine deliveries will occur across the second half to get these gliders sent to their end destination.

These delays, however, are something airlines have come to expect, and also something they’ve been alerted to through messaging from the planemaker several months ago, indicating that dialogue between the business and airlines was clear about the many-month-long additional delays that would be incurred.

Throughout the year, there have also been challenges in supply chains, which have impacted seat deliveries and the assembly of fuselage parts, all of which have contributed to the staggered advancements in output rate.