Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Heading toward year-end, Airbus maintains lead in narrowbody orders but Boeing commands the widebody sector
Subscription Required
By Scott Hamilton
Oct. 13, 2025, © Leeham News: As the commercial airliner industry sprints to the end of this year, Boeing remains the champion in the widebody, twin-aisle sector with a commanding lead over Airbus.
Figure 1
But the European manufacturer is the blow-out victor in the more important narrowbody, single-aisle sector where between 80% and 85% of the sales are made.
Boeing has 59% of the widebody backlog to Airbus’ 41%. These are the only two companies competing in this sector.
In the more crowded single-aisle 125-240 seat sector, Airbus has a 54% market share to Boeing’s 35%. China’s COMAC has a 10% share of the backlog, although its production and delivery performance is poor. Embraer’s E195-E2, has a 1% share of this sector. The E195-E2 is a 144-seat single class and 133-seat two-class airplane.
Figure 2
Embraer’s smaller E190-E2 competes with the Airbus A220-100. Airbus has 54% of this 100-125 seat sector with 45 planes in backlog to EMB’s 39 planes. Embraer’s smallest jet, the 76-seat E175-E1, has no competition. The 175 has a backlog of 208 aircraft.
Airbus Balances Automation and Airmanship
Subscription Required
By Chris Sloan
Oct. 09, 2025, © Leeham News: Automation, advances in the prospect and single-pilot operation, and overall aircraft safety are great for the airline and commercial aerospace industries.
But the downside is that pilot skills are subject to deterioration. Hands-on experience and skills become necessary in an instant when emergencies begin to pile up.
US Airways flight 1549, the so-called Miracle in the Hudson, is one example where advanced design in flight envelope protection in the Airbus A320, combined with the flying skills of the pilots, led to a successful water ditching alongside New York City.
Qantas Airways flight 32, an Airbus A380, suffered an uncontained engine failure that triggered more than 100 identified faults in the advanced computer system. However, the five pilots in the cockpit required experienced thinking and top-flight skills to land the airplane safely.
These are just two examples of technical advances combining with pilot skills for the ultimate safety of the airplane.
Airbus acknowledges the tension between automation, computer advancements, and the necessity for pilots to maintain hands-on flying skills.
FAA begins to ease restrictions on Boeing
Subscription Required
Part 2 of 2
By Scott Hamilton
Oct. 06, 2025, © Leeham News: Boeing is making progress toward its recovery from six years of back-to-back-to-back crises, but slow certification of three airplane derivatives has been a major roadblock. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration began to ever so slowly ease its strict oversight of Boeing.
The first Boeing 777-9 taxis out for its first flight of the program. Credit: Leeham News.
Certification of the 777X requires a series of flight tests specific to what’s called Type Inspection Authorization (TIA), issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. Typically, TIA is a one-step authorization. The FAA is granting this in stages, to the frustration of Boeing and CEO Kelly Ortberg.
Related Story
Certification of the 737 MAX 7 and MAX 10 derivatives was paused during the 21-month grounding of the MAX 8 and MAX 9 following the March 10, 2019, crash of the second MAX 8 within five months. The two accidents killed 346 people; the root cause was traced to a design flaw within software that pushed the nose of the MAX down in the event a potential stall was detected.
During the lengthy investigation of the MAX crashes, further flaws of a less serious nature were identified. The FAA required these to be fixed before the 7s and 10s are certified. This process has not gone smoothly. According to information provided to LNA, the unintended consequences of new legislation adopted by Congress during the MAX investigation appear to be causing repeated delays in certifying the MAX in addition to some nettlesome technical issues.
Additionally, action by the Trump Administration to eliminate jobs across the government, including the FAA, as part of its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) killed some jobs tied to aircraft certification.
To summarize:
Staffing shortages affect Air Traffic Control, NOTAMS, updates–and Boeing
Subscription Required
Part 1 of 2 Parts
By Colleen Mondor
Oct. 2, 2025, © Leeham News: The Trump Administration’s drive to cut employment in the federal government slashed numbers across virtually every agency and department.
But for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has perpetually been understaffed across its air traffic controllers (ATC), technicians, and certification units, the impact exacerbates an already tenuous situation.
Credit: Federal Aviation Administration.
For airlines and passengers, delays have skyrocketed at key airports, followed by a surge in cancellations. Operating costs skyrocketed for the airlines as scores or aircraft sat on taxiways waiting to take off or backed up on the tarmac awaiting a gate occupied by airplanes that couldn’t take off.
Runway incursions have increased, as have near-collisions in mid-air.
Shortages of aircraft certification employees at the FAA have slowed Boeing’s recovery from six years of sorting out its crises and “ticketing authority” as the FAA scrutinizes the company. FAA certification of the Airbus A321XLR was slow, adding to the one-year delay of its entry into service.
***************************
Special Note
The US federal government shut down at midnight on Sept. 30 when Congress failed to pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the government. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) laid off more than 11,000 employees. Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) has been under strict FAA scrutiny since March 2019, notably for 737 MAX production, safety, and quality control issues. The FAA revoked BCA’s ability to certify its new airplanes as airworthy before delivery to customers, assuming this responsibility.
On Sept. 29, the FAA partially returned this authority to Boeing, which now may certify the airplanes on a weekly alternating schedule. With the government shutdown, the question of FAA’s oversight and certification of Boeing airplanes arises. Boeing declined comment, but Boeing has told customers that at least for now, production rates, certification, and FAA oversight activities will continue uninterrupted. This may change if the government shutdown is prolonged.
****************************
Staffing shortages among controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport will cause existing cuts in flight service to be extended through October 2026, Reuters reported on Sept. 25.
This was the latest in a litany of news articles highlighting staffing issues within the nation’s air traffic control system. The Washington Post reported in July that nearly 20% of recruits at the FAA training academy failed to complete the training program, contributing to shortages. It then followed up on Sept. 21 that the academy was struggling with instructor shortages.
USA Today asked in May, “Why air traffic control is under so much stress”, while NPR spoke with controllers in July and declared the “…push to modernize equipment won’t fix deeper problems.”
Manufacturing and Materials Takes Center Stage in Next-Gen Aircraft at Global Aerospace Summit
Subscription Required
By Chris Sloan
Sept. 29, 2025, © Leeham News: At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 9, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury reminded attendees that propulsion alone cannot deliver the performance leap expected from future aircraft. He said Airbus is targeting a 20–25% overall fuel efficiency improvement and noted that “half of it will come with the propulsion. When we integrate the bigger engine to be more efficient at the engine level, there are some losses. So the other half will come from the wing, aerodynamic efficiency, weight, and those kinds of things.”
This “other half” is why advanced materials and manufacturing are stepping into the spotlight. The conversation, moderated by Kevin Chow, EVP and Head of Aerostructures and Systems, Commercial Aerospace, ST Engineering, centered on next-generation programs, which are no longer just about engines or even airframe design. It is about how to build aircraft faster, lighter, and with greater precision to meet historically high production rates.
(Left to Right): Daryl Taylor, Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial Operations, Airbus; Eric Hein, Director, Strategy and Product Development, National Institute for Aviation Research, Wichita State University; Tom Gentile, Chairman, CEO, and President, Hexcel Corporation; and panel moderator Kevin Chow, EVP and Head of Aerostructures and Systems, Commercial Aerospace, ST Engineering.
Slowing History, Faster Targets
Airbus aims to produce 14 A220s per month in 2026 and 75 A320 family aircraft per month in 2027 — a dramatic increase from current output. Daryl Taylor, Senior Vice President of US Commercial Operations, said that “historically production rates in this industry take a long time to get up to speed.” He said Airbus is acting now to be ready when the following clean-sheet aircraft is launched: “We know that with that type of backlog we expect in the future, we’re gonna have a fully proven automated set of solutions to deploy.”
In Mobile (AL), Airbus operates two final assembly lines for the A220 and A320 families and is building a third that will open soon. Taylor said that “just throwing more people at the problem is not the answer. At Airbus, we think [automation] is critical to the core of our execution and ramp-up, so we are investing heavily in our own capabilities and making acquisitions. We’re not relying on others to do that.”
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 7. Other OEMs.
Subscription Required
By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 25, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 1 of this series, we described the production system for Embraer. Should Embraer or any other OEM enter the race for the next aircraft in the single aisle segment, it will pose the same challenges as for Boeing and Airbus.
Embraer has recovered from the collapse of the Boeing-EMB joint venture, and the E195-E2 is selling well. But the regional jet market is limited. Embraer is considering whether to move up to the mainline jet sector. Credit: Embraer.
The aircraft must integrate new types of engines, and large parts must be made with the new types of composites that enable high-rate production.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 6. Airbus: Production of future aircraft
Subscription Required
By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 22, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 5 of this series, we described the efforts to improve Airbus’ present production, and what the learnings were from changes in the FAL setup.
Airbus A220 production line in Montreal, when it was still Bombardier. Airbus is revamping the process to become more efficient and reduce costs. Credit: Leeham News.
We also described how Airbus has learned to refocus on the production mechanic, as he/she is finally the enabler and problem solver in a complicated system.
For the next generation aircraft that will replace today’s single aisle A320/A321 there are special challenges that are forcing Airbus to change the way that the aircraft are produced.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 5. Airbus: Improving the present
Subscription Required
By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 18, 2025, © Leeham News: In Part 1 of this series, we described the history behind Airbus’ very different production setup. The need to give a distributed value creation to participating countries in the then-Airbus joint venture, forced a multinational distributed production system that remains today.
The Airbus A320 fuselage production line in Hamburg, Germany. Credit: Leeham News.
We now examine the recent changes/improvements in this setup, including Airbus’ recent policies around the organization of production from a pre-Paris Air Show demonstration of their new A320/A321 Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 4. Boeing: new aircraft production
Subscription Required
By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 15, 2025, © Leeham News: In the fourth part of our article series about the Production of the next new aircraft, we look at what changes Boeing needs to do to produce the next new aircraft we described in our series What’s the next new aircraft.
Boeing 737s awaiting delivery, November 2022. Credit: Leeham News.
The new small widebody described in the series and a replacement for the 737 MAX will be an all-composite aircraft. For these products, new, cheaper, and faster composite production technology is needed.
The present widebody composite methods are not made for high-rate, low-cost aircraft, as Boeing found out lately with the NMA, which was canceled, not least because of the high-cost composite methods used.
How’s the next new aircraft produced? Part 3. Boeing: Improving the present.
Subscription Required
By the Leeham News Team
Sept. 11, 2025, © Leeham News: In the third part of our article series about the Production of the next new aircraft, we look at where Boeing is with the present production and how this can develop in preparation for a next-generation aircraft.
Several of Boeing’s production sites have their roots in World War II factories making Bombers for the war effort. Each has built new production lines and modernized them over time.
Figure 1. Boeing 737 factory in Renton (WA). Credit: Boeing.
Boeing has fallen well behind Airbus in commercial aircraft narrowbody sales over the last decade. Poor strategic and tactical decisions, emphasis on shareholder value vs product strategy, poor execution on new commercial, defense, and space programs, and a series of safety crises with its 737 and 787 programs also took tolls, according to many observers, including Richard Aboulafia and Kevin Michaels of Aerodynamic Advisory, and aerospace analyst Ron Epstein of Bank of America.
Boeing has less than 40% market share in the dominant single aisle market, more than $50bn in debt, it’s losing money, and has an aging product line.
For Boeing, a drastic makeover in its aircraft programs, from concept to design to production, is key to its financial and market turnaround.