Proactive Investors - Delays from aircraft suppliers Airbus Group (EPA:AIR) and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) could last for years, according to industry members, marking bad news for the recovering sector.
US company Air Lease Corp confirmed on Monday that Boeing and Airbus had issued “additional notices of delay” over deliveries due for 2023 and 2024 in “recent weeks”.
“One […] has advised us to expect delays compared to originally contracted delivery dates through 2028,” the company’s chief executive, John Plueger told investors on a call.
Both manufacturers admitted in April that output of narrow-body jets from the A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX families looked set to be hit going forward.
Comments from Air Lease suggest these woes may continue for longer than expected though, with Airbus originally anticipating just three-month delays by 2024 due to supply chain bottlenecks left over from the pandemic.
Boeing did not clarify how long shortfalls would continue but suggested a “significant” number of 737 shipments would suffer delays in the short term over quality issues with fuselage parts from supplier Spirit AeroSystems.
Ryanair Holdings PLC (LON:RYA) boss Michael O’Leary had already raised doubts over Boeing’s ability to meet orders late last year as the value carrier awaited delivery of 210 737s, signed for in December 2020.
Despite hinting towards a new deal with Boeing in March, O’Leary reiterated shortfalls from the supplier meant “some flights” would “certainly” have to be trimmed in coming months.
Rival easyJet (LON:EZJ) PLC is awaiting deliveries of 135 A320neo jets and 33 larger A321neos from Airbus meanwhile, with these expected between 2026 and 2029 as the supplier clears a backlog of 8,600 variants of the jet from 2021.
Airbus shares slipped 0.3% to €126.7 on the news.