Airbus is rushing to speed up deliveries as it hopes to meet promised delivery targets despite persistent production delays and supply chain disruptions, the Financial Times reported last week. The firm will have to deliver 200 jets by year end to meet annual targets, but will have to “match or exceed record delivery volumes” over those two months to “get the higher target that they’ve set themselves compared with 2023,” head of Advisory at Cirium Ascend Consultancy Max Kingsley-Jones added.

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Who has it worse in the aviation duopoly? Boeing is still recovering from the mid-air blowout in a section of its jets in January that shed light on the firm’s shortcomings, and while the incident and fallout gave Airbus a headstart to establish a lead, the company has been “unable to capitalize on Boeing’s weakness because of the supply chain issues” due to engine delivery delays and shortages of labor and components. “Airbus has come out of Covid with more problems than they probably acknowledge and the operational task of turning it around is very significant,” an industry analyst told FT.

It was under control, until it wasn’t: Although Airbus started the year on a high — ending 2023 with a record 2k orders for new aircraft and a total order backlog of 8.5k — it had to cut its end-of-year target back in June from 800 to 770 and postponed its target of producing 75 A320 jets a month from 2026 to 2027. The revisions — which also included cutting its annual profit forecast — revisions that dipped Airbus shares more than 10% at the time, which are currently down 1.3% since the start of the year.

Way in over their heads? Airbus said it had made clear that the delivery target would be “backloaded and challenging” as it was focused on meeting the target while attaining to the post-pandemic travel demand. The firm had “promised a lot…that’s putting a lot of strain on the system,” an industry executive said. Engine supplies also have one of the biggest issues, with CFM International — a JV between France’s Safran and GE of the US and Pratt & Whitney — grappling to meet demand and struggling with durability issues.

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