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Airbus has announced that it booked 644 orders for its commercial aircraft in 2010, a slightly higher figure than the 625 sales for the year Boeing announced earlier this month.
The European manufacturer also achieved a company high delivery total of 510 aircraft for the year (Boeing delivered 462), 12 more than in 498, handed over to 94 separate customers.
Orders for 2010 comprised 452 A320 Family aircraft, 160 A330/A340 and A350 range aircraft, and 32 A380s. After cancellations the net sales figure for the year was 574 (Boeing’s net order figure for 2010 was 530), well up on the net orders for 271 aircraft booked in 2009. In addition, Airbus Military also booked new orders for 21 CN235 and C295 military transports, and delivered 20.
“2010 was a good year, in fact better than expected 12 months ago,” said Tom Enders, Airbus president and CEO. “The market rebound and improved program performance has been particularly encouraging. However, with plenty of challenges, especially in our development programs, we’ll have to work hard to further improve and also make 2011 a successful year for Airbus.”
Airbus says it recruited 2200 new employees in 2010, taking its workforce to 52,500 by the end of the year. It says it plans to hire up to 3000 more employees in 2011, “in particular for the ramp-up of the single aisle and long range programs as well as development and industrialisation of the A400M, A350 XWB and the A320neo”.
Enders said Airbus expects to deliver 520-530 aircraft in 2011, and book a slightly higher number of orders.
