Airbus delivered 863 commercial aircraft to 99 customers in 2019, outpacing its previous output record set in 2018 by eight per cent.

In the 17th yearly production increase in a row, Airbus progressed on the transition to all ‘neo’ variants and by year end Airbus had delivered 173 wide-body aircraft, its highest number in a single year.

The European manufacturer delivered 48 A220 planes, 53 A330s and 112 aircraft from the A350 family.

The bulk of deliveries came in the form of A320 planes, where Airbus delivered 642 last year, up from 626 in 2018

There was, however, a small decline in the number of A380s delivered, with eight rolling off production lines last year, down from 12 in 2018.

“I am happy to see our commercial aircraft order and delivery numbers reflecting the continuous efforts to better serve our customers and bring our competitive products and services to the market”, said Guillaume Faury, Airbus chief executive.

“I sincerely thank our customers for their loyalty and the Airbus teams and our industry partners who made it possible.”

Net orders reached 768 last year, compared to 747 in 2018, underlining customer endorsements in all market segments and taking Airbus’ overall historical cumulative net orders over the 20,000 mark.

The A220 achieved 63 net orders, confirming it as the leading aircraft in its category.