According to Airbus, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, airlines ordering popular single-aisle jets for short-haul routes will face a two-year waiting period for delivery due to continued supply constraints.

Christian Scherer, chief commercial officer of the European aerospace group, said that airlines’ demand for the company’s A320 family of jets is so strong that the “roughly” delivery time for large orders is now about Around 2024-25.

“I hope I have more aircraft to sell. The most ideal asset has supply constraints… On a single channel, this points to the A320 and A321, and now it also points to the A220,” he told the Financial Times.

Scherer said that despite the worry The spread of the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus, Demand is fundamentally driven by the demand for more fuel-efficient aircraft. Airbus won two important orders last week, including a deal with Air France-KLM Group for 100 A320neo and A321neo. The first delivery is expected in the second half of 2023.

“In general, the entire airline industry realizes that when people can travel, they will travel, and they will do so with revenge… The Covid crisis has accelerated people’s awareness of more… . Energy-saving technologies are inevitable,” Scherer said.

He added that only 13% of today’s global commercial fleet is of the latest generation.

Airlines almost stopped ordering aircraft last year, and in many cases tried to delay or even cancel deliveries at the height of the pandemic. But as many airlines, including Australia Qantas, are now seeking to renew their fleets, the aerospace supply chain is under increasing pressure.

Manufacturing demand Boeing 737 Max The pressure is increasing. Since the aircraft was grounded in 2019 and resumed production in May 2020, the American manufacturer has surpassed Airbus in sales this year for the first time. As of the end of November, Boeing has received 692 Max orders this year.

Airbus won 540 orders for its competitors A321neo and A320neo during the same period.

The European group is still expected to maintain its position as the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer by the end of the year. As of the end of November, it had delivered 518 aircraft. Boeing delivered the 302.

Airbus insists that demand for its single-aisle aircraft is strong enough to justify a substantial increase in production from pre-pandemic levels. Airbus plans to increase the production of its A320 series to 65 per month by 2023. It is considering up to 75 per month in 2025. It reached a record of 60 per month in 2019, and then dropped to 40 per month last year. The new crown virus is coming.

However, aircraft lessors and engine manufacturers have Concerned about aggressive goals, Worrying that too many new jets will retire existing jets more quickly, thereby weakening their profits.

Ihssane Mounir, Boeing’s senior vice president of commercial sales, issued a more cautious warning about the demand outlook. He told the Financial Times that “you must set the production targets that the market needs and the targets that the supply chain can support.”

“You have to look at the supply chain very carefully. Customers need reliability, quality and predictability,” Mounir said.

Despite the pressure on the supply chain, Scherer insisted that “it seems that there are no systemic barriers that will prevent us from upgrading.”

Sash Tusa, an analyst at Agency Partners, said it will take time to restore supply chain capacity. He added that even large suppliers want “Airbus to make some form of commitment (cash, pricing or guaranteed offtake) to increase prices before investing, of course, more than 60 A320neos per month: this level is The real obstacles to the industry”.