A330ceo order gap update

Airbus last week announced to lower the A330 production to 6 units a month from the 1^st quarter of 2016 on. Today the rate is at 10 per month, coming down to 9 in the last quarter of this year.

So here is an update of the backlog situation for the A330. Until the A330neo will enter service in late 2017 there are around 60 open delivery slots that Airbus needs to sell. As the A330neo production will not take over production from one day to another there are even more slots to fill if Airbus wants to keep overall A330ceo/A330neo production at a constant level.

Let’s have a look at the customers who are behind the open orders and how safe the current backlog is:

One thing is for sure: the 15 A330 still in the books for Kingfisher will not be delivered (at least not to Kingfisher).

There is also a good chance that we might see more deferrals from AirAsiaX, having 13 open deliveries. Some of them might be switched to the neo variant (and I personally think they have over-ordered the A330neo already).

Another “weak” customer with a large backlog is Garuda (13 A330-300).

So there is significant risk that Airbus needs even more orders for the A330ceo to keep production at the now declared levels.