Airbus Plans Major A350 Orders

Airbus is targeting major orders for its A350 program to be signed in June, in time for the landmark Paris Air Show.

The planemaker’s attempts to secure new deals for its A350 follow a busy period for its competitor, Boeing, which has been able to enhance its backlog, especially for its wide-body aircraft.

Airbus believes that while a bulk load of new orders has come from the Middle East, there is still hope that it can secure significant deals from this market from airlines that are still trying to grow their backlog.

The A350 will be a focus of the airline’s push, with the latest reporting, driven by Bloomberg, suggesting that a pitch to Riyadh Air for the Airbus A350 could be the next step in developing this start-up airline.

Riyadh Air has been targeting either a significant order for the 777X or A350 for some time, with the selection of an actual high-capacity plane pivotal to operate with the 787 Dreamliner across long-haul markets.

However, away from the A350, Airbus is also aware that there are customers who may be looking towards their single-aisle portfolio, which has arguably become more appealing to airlines in recent times than Boeing’s, thanks to further development.

What is ordered remains to be seen, but Airbus is confident that it’ll be able to turn interest into aircraft orders and get itself back on track after a successful last month for its rival, Boeing.

Airbus vs Boeing In 2025

It has been an interesting first half of 2025 for Airbus, as the company continues to compete with Boeing after enjoying a successful last half-decade compared to its counterpart.

However, driven by a recent visit to the Middle East by U.S. President Donald Trump, several new and significant aircraft orders were secured for wide-body planes.

These colossal orders helped strengthen the backlog of widebody types from the American planemaker. Further, they cemented the reality that, aircraft-wise, Boeing is having its first solid year in some time, with genuine interest in programs and trust being rebuilt.

Boeing is on a long road to recovery, trying to repair its image from both the public’s standpoint and that of its airline customers. Now, some of those existing and prospective customers are seeing the improvement.

While Boeing’s production rates remain below the levels they would like, they have still been able to, in the early months of 2025, stick with Airbus on this front, which, while they don’t have production caps imposed, have struggled with their supply chain constraints, preventing smooth production of commercial aircraft.

For the remainder of 2025, Airbus will aim to increase overall orders for its commercial aircraft division while also addressing supply chain constraints.

While minor improvements have been noted in the supply chain, the manufacturer has made it clear that it still expects delays in the delivery of new planes to continue into 2027/2028.