Airbus Reports on November Sales, Deliveries
Airbus reports on November sales, deliveries
Sales of more than 1,000 A320-series jets, led by the new A320neo, propelled Airbus's 2011 order total past 1,300. (Photo: Airbus)

Airbus has collected net firm orders for 1,378 airplanes so far this year, according to the company’s just-released November orders and deliveries report. Contracts for the month of November included a 50-unit A320 sale to Kuwaiti aircraft lessor ALAFCO, a firm order for 30 A320s from Aviation Capital Group of Newport Beach, Calif., firm commitments for six A319s, 30 A320s, 14 A321s and five A380s from Qatar Airways and orders for eight A320s from Russia’s Transaero, a single A330-300 from Singapore’s BOC Aviation and five A330-200s from Hawaiian Airlines.

Deliveries for the year now total 477, including 59 in the month of November. During 2011, the company has delivered 22 A380s, 78 A330s and 377 A320-family jets.

Last month Airbus announced it would cease building the four-engine A340, none of which it has delivered this year.

An EADS spokesman told AIN that the last A340 rolled off its assembly line in Toulouse, France, more than six months ago, but that the company chose not to publicize the fact until the release of its third-quarter earnings report. Airbus has delivered all but two of the 377 A340s manufactured since it launched the program in 1987.

Two VIP customers await imminent delivery, following interior completion. Airbus has not has not sold a single A340 since early in 2010, said the spokesman, who added that the cancellation of the program will not result in any changes to employment, mainly because Airbus built the A340 on the same line on which it still builds the far more popular A330 twin-engine widebody.