For Airbus, 2016 will see a strong emphasis on strengthening the production process as the European airframer deals with heavy delivery commitments for several programs. Announcing the 2015 results at a Paris press conference on January 12, Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier indicated that a record 635 deliveries took place last year and he set a target of more than 650, including 50 A350 XWBs, for this year.

Lufthansa is expected to receive the first A320neo over the next couple of weeks, delayed from the original delivery date in late December. Brégier confirmed that the slight delay is in part linked to the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines for the new narrowbody.

“We have a few limitations [with the PW1100G],” said Brégier, citing issues such as the start-up phase for the geared turbofans. “The start time of these big engines is longer than that of the V2500 [the IAE powerplant that is one of the engine options for the current A320 family]. But it will improve.”

The production ramp-up for the A320neo will accelerate in the second half of the year. In the first six months of 2016, Airbus wants to ensure that production processes “stabilize” at its own factories and at those of its engine suppliers, COO Tom Williams told AIN. He expressed confidence both Pratt & Whitney and CFM International (offering the Leap 1A engine) can increase their output as expected. There is no lack of capital investment and the management teams are strongly motivated, up to the parent company level, he said.

The A320neo may entirely replace the current ceo version in production from mid-2019. However, Airbus does not rule out the possibility that it will build ceos after 2019, as customers may still want them. Single-aisle production is predicted to be between 60-63 in the 2019-2020 period.

Airbus missed last year’s delivery target of 15 A350 XWBs, with only 14 aircraft reaching operators. Brégier blamed seat and lavatory supplier Zodiac. He said he had been “very patient” and appeared irritated at the French firm’s top executives, who he said have been “in denial” over the problems.

Zodiac has been deselected as an A330neo cabin supplier. However, there is no intention yet to switch to another equipment manufacturer on the A350, as Zodiac has instituted a remedial action plan to improve its performance, according to Brégier.

Nevertheless, Airbus was satisfied with the overall performance of its supply chain last year. The number of missing parts is decreasing, for example. “We have issues beyond Zodiac but this is normal work,” Brégier said. Therefore, Airbus is continuing the ramp-up with a target of 10 A350s per month by the end of 2018.

“Now, it is a question of how we bring carbon fiber up to speed [in terms of production rates],” Williams said. Reducing the amount of rework in general is important, too, he added. Airbus is adding more employees and machine tools to increase production and make processes “very repeatable.”

Digitalization is being emphasized as a means to improve production efficiency across all Airbus plants and programs, for example: connecting workers on the assembly line with the company’s back offices. “We have to fix a lot of quality issues every year, and digitalization should help us anticipate and eradicate the problems,” Brégier explained.

Last year, Airbus also worked on securing production rates for the A330 twinjet. Having received some more orders for the existing A330ceo model, the airframer confirmed that it will produce these at a rate of six per month until it is eventually replaced by the new A330neo.

In Tianjin, China, where Airbus already has an A320 final assembly line, the investment for an A330 cabin completion and delivery center is to be launched next month with an undisclosed Chinese partner. The facility should be ready in 2017.

Meanwhile, 27 A380s were delivered last year, allowing Airbus to break even on the program for 2015. Brégier said this had been achieved through cost cutting and indicated that the company expects to be able to break even even if annual delivery rates fall to the low 20s.

Airbus confirmed that late last year it did receive an order for three A380s from an undisclosed customer. COO, customers John Leahy would say only that the contract is with “a global leading airline” – there is wide speculation that this is Japan’s All Nippon Airways. However, Airbus also reported that Russia’s Transaero has cancelled one of its four A380 orders, bringing the net tally to just two sales of the widebody in 2015. A380 orders thus total 319 since program launch.

Pressed about the prospect of a downturn, Brégier and Leahy appeared unfazed. One concern may be IATA’s passenger traffic forecast, which has been cut recently from 4.1 to 3.8 percent in average annual growth. “IATA is in a strange situation – they don’t cover all airlines,” Brégier suggested, stressing Airbus deliveries last year were above what would be expected based on IATA’s numbers.

He added that the Chinese economic slowdown is not being felt, as the appetite of Chinese consumers is being fueled by factors such a more relaxed U.S. visa policy. At the same time the country continues to build, Brégier said.

Asked whether China’s economic slowdown is impacting Malaysia and Indonesia, Brégier suggested that the tumbling Shanghai stock exchange should be seen as unrelated to the real economy. “More and more people are joining the middle class in Southeast Asia and they want to travel,” he insisted.

The Airbus executives touched on various other factors. Brégier said that low fuel prices “help our customers prepare for the future. They don’t expect oil will stay so cheap for a long time.”

Competition from Bombardier and Comac is not deemed a threat – the CSeries and the C919 “will get some market share, but not massive,” Brégier said.

As of mid-January, the first A321neo was expected to fly “in the coming weeks.” The maiden sortie of an A319neo was predicted for next spring. The first delivery of an A320neo with CFM Leap engines is envisioned for the summer months.

Final assembly of the first A350-1000 was to start this month (February) with a first flight targeted for this year’s fourth quarter (2016). On the in-service A350-900, “we will achieve 98.5 percent of operational reliability this year, which is the minimum on a widebody,” Brégier promised.

The 635 aircraft Airbus handed over last year included the highest number it ever delivered - 144. The company gained 1,036 new orders, expanding its backlog by 401 units. The total backlog for Airbus now stands at 6,787 aircraft. This should increase further in 2016, as the book-to-bill ratio is projected to be above one.

In conclusion, Leahy pointed out that the Airbus firm order backlog is so strong that the manufacturer cannot afford to slow deliveries before 2020, no matter what happens in the meantime.