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By Vincent Valery

Introduction  

Aug. 22, 2022, © Leeham News: The ink has now dried on the orders signed at the 2022 Farnborough Air Show. Boeing announced more orders than Airbus, mainly because of a sold-out A320 production line well into the future. Airbus also announced orders shortly before and after the Air Show.

Credit: Airbus

Airbus and Boeing also disclosed their second quarter of 2022 earnings and July orders and deliveries, the first post-Farnborough update. OEMs are more likely to reassess the quality of their order books before disclosing future earnings.

Airbus and Boeing have outstanding orders with airlines where there is a material probability some orders won't translate into deliveries. Most were the result of airlines encountering financial difficulties, but some were related to contractual disputes. Boeing flags such orders as subject to an ASC 606 accounting rule adjustment.

Unlike Boeing, Airbus isn't subject to an accounting rule like the ASC 606 adjustments. Therefore, the European OEM does not break down the orders at risk of cancellation by the program. Airbus only discloses the nominal value of its total adjusted order book in its annual report.

LNA analyzed July 2020, November 2020, August 2021, and February 2022 Airbus' and Boeing's order books to identify orders at risk and come up with an apples-to-apples comparison. We update this analysis with the latest order books from both OEMs. The above links explain our methodology and its differences with Boeing's ASC 606 adjustments.

Summary

• Lingering order book cleanup for older programs;
• The Boeing-China factor;
• A healthier single-aisle Boeing order book;
• Updates on the A330neo and large twin-aisle aircraft order books;
• One aircraft variant stands out.