Airbus vs Boeing: The race to deliver new aeroplanes gets complicated in November
December 10, 2025
Airbus and Boeing have published their figures for November deliveries. Airbus reported a softer month, with 72 jets delivered to customers, down from 78 in October. Boeing’s November delivery tally was also down, with 44 aircraft delivered compared to 53 in October.
Here’s how their November orders and deliveries stack up as the planemakers prepare for the December endgame.
| Manufacturer | November 2025 Deliveries | 2025 YTD Deliveries (Jan–Nov) |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus | 72 | 657 |
| Boeing | 44 | 537 |
Airbus confronts fewer November deliveries and the fuselage panel drag, reducing guidance
Airbus published its November tally, which included 72 aircraft delivered to 42 customers. That’s down from 78 in October 2025 and 84 in November 2024. Despite this, Airbus is ahead in the first 11 months of 2025, delivering 657 jets, up slightly from 643 in the same period in 2024.
Order momentum remained respectable: November saw 75 gross orders and no cancellations, leaving Airbus with 657 deliveries and around 700 net orders year-to-date.
A320 metal panel issue forces Airbus to revisit annual target
The step-down in Airbus’ November deliveries is directly tied to the A320-family fuselage panel quality escape that was first reported in early December.
Airbus engineers have identified thickness flaws on metal panels in the forward fuselage of some A320-family jets supplied by Sofitec Aero in Spain. As reported by Reuters, a presentation to airlines shows 628 aircraft needing inspection, including 168 already in service and 245 in final assembly, of which around 100 are earmarked for delivery in 2025.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has acknowledged that the issue is hurting deliveries and said Airbus is still assessing its impact on December output. Following the panel issue, Airbus trimmed its 2025 delivery guidance.
- Previous guidance indicated ~820–823 aircraft this year.
- Airbus now targets around 790 deliveries for 2025.
Airbus faces a challenging December
With 657 jets already delivered by the end of November, the manufacturer would need to deliver 133 aircraft this month to hit its revised target of 790.
A triple-digit December is something Airbus can accomplish—the manufacturer hit 129 deliveries in December 2023, for example—but it is trickier when up to 100 A320-family aircraft due this year require inspections and possible panel repairs.
Reuters cites the Air Current as reporting that any required rework could take three to five weeks per aircraft.
Airbus still has some engine-less “gliders” remaining, to help things along. The last tally update from Faury during the Q3 earnings call cited 32 completed aircraft without engines parked due to CFM supply delays though, some of these may already have been delivered. However you do the maths, the manufacturer has a steep hill to climb this month.
Boeing: November slowdown, with parked inventory used up
According to Boeing’s latest monthly update, the manufacturer delivered 44 aircraft in November, a 17% drop from October’s 53. It is also the manufacturer’s third consecutive month of decline (August 57, September 55, October 53, November 44).
Boeing’s breakdown for November is as follows:
- 32 × 737 MAXs
- 6 × 787s
- 2 × 777 freighters
- 4 × 767s
Boeing has not set an official annual delivery target, which takes some pressure off its numbers. Even with the weak month, Boeing has delivered 537 commercial jets in the first 11 months of 2025, already above its best post-MAX-grounding year (528 aircraft in 2023) and reached its highest 11-month delivery total since the 737 MAX crisis, with widebody deliveries (74 so far this year) almost doubling the same period in 2024.
On the orders side, November was strong: 164 gross orders, 38 cancellations, for 126 net orders, including a blockbuster 74-jet 777X package (with Emirates announcing an order for 65 during the Dubai Air Show and China Airlines adding nine), plus orders for 30 new 787s and 43 737 MAXs.
Unlike Airbus, Boeing doesn’t have a large inventory of completed and parked aircraft remaining. The manufacturer has been shipping its white tails this year and will likely have shipped them all by the end of December. As CFO Jay Malavé said during the UBS Global Industrials & Transportation Conference on December 2:
“When you look at this year, and we’ve talked about in the range of 440 to 450 deliveries for the 737, in that range. There are upwards of 50 aircraft in that ballpark that we’re delivering that came from inventory. When you now fast forward to 2026, we’re going to be increasing our deliveries, but there won’t be hardly any aircraft, if any at all, that will be coming out of inventory. So, it’ll be really through the production rollout system, that’ll be the source of the deliveries.”
What this means for Boeing’s December
Market expectations were that Boeing would deliver approximately 590 aircraft this year, though Forecast International puts them closer to 570. With 537 aircraft delivered through November, Boeing would need to complete 53 more deliveries in December to meet the most optimistic delivery expectations, which is less than half of what Airbus still needs to meet its revised target.
Both manufacturers have faced delivery challenges and are showing signs of a slowdown as the year comes to a close. Still, Boeing has made its path to recovery easier by not committing to a number.
Featured Image: Airbus
