A350 Archives - Leeham News and Analysis

Airbus closed 2025 with 793 jetliner deliveries, falling short of its original 820-unit guidance after the target was revised downward late in the year. A350 deliveries declined year-over-year, with former Airbus Commercial Aircraft CEO Christian Scherer acknowledging a period of "stagnation" tied directly to supply chain disruptions originating from Spirit AeroSystems, the Wichita-based tier-one supplier that has struggled with financial instability and production quality issues affecting multiple OEM programs. Spirit's difficulties, which also entangled Boeing's 787 and 737 MAX production schedules, demonstrated once again how deeply concentrated risk remains within the commercial aviation supply chain, where a single major supplier's dysfunction can suppress delivery volumes across multiple widebody and narrowbody programs simultaneously.

Despite the A350 headwinds, Airbus maintained its commanding position in narrowbody orders through the close of 2025, while Boeing retained a significant lead in widebody and twin-aisle commitments. The competitive dynamic reflects longer-term fleet replacement cycles playing out across both major airline groups and leasing companies, with operators increasingly splitting their widebody strategies between the 787 and A350 families depending on route economics and cabin configuration requirements. For corporate and charter operators considering used A350 availability, the delivery stagnation may temporarily affect the secondary market, as airlines holding positions in backlogs delay retirements of older widebody equipment. Business aviation operators on long ultra-range routes with access to A350-based private configurations — a niche but growing segment — should monitor whether suppressed new deliveries affect pricing on the pre-owned or ACMI-configured widebody market.

Looking toward the medium and longer term, Airbus is positioning itself around next-generation propulsion, with CFM's RISE Open Fan engine program scheduled to begin test flights in 2029 aboard Airbus's A380 flying testbed. The RISE architecture, which eliminates the conventional nacelle in favor of counter-rotating unducted fans, targets a fuel burn reduction of more than 20 percent compared to current LEAP-generation engines. For professional pilots and flight departments operating on long planning horizons — particularly those managing fleet transition planning for Part 91K or Part 135 turbofan operations — the 2029 ground-test milestone is a meaningful data point, though entry-into-service for aircraft powered by RISE derivatives remains a mid-2030s proposition at the earliest. The A380 test platform selection is particularly notable given that aircraft's relatively limited future production prospects, repurposing it as a high-value engineering tool.

Financially, Airbus entered 2025 in solid shape, posting a €0.6 billion adjusted EBIT in the first quarter and delivering a generally on-plan first half, with one significant exception: approximately 60 A320 and A321 aircraft awaiting engines remained undelivered, parked as engineless airframes — informally dubbed "gliders" within the industry. This engine-flow bottleneck, driven by supply and certification pressures affecting CFM and Pratt & Whitney's GTF programs, continued to compress airline delivery schedules and indirectly tightened aircraft availability in some regional markets. Macro-level uncertainty has been compounded by US tariff policy; while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy publicly backed a return to the longstanding zero-tariff framework on aerospace products dating to 1979, Airbus leadership warned that tariff unpredictability makes forward financial guidance difficult to sustain, a dynamic that could influence fleet financing structures, dollar-denominated lease rates, and aircraft import decisions for US-registered operators acquiring foreign-manufactured equipment.