Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Spirit Aero problems affected A350 deliveries
By the Leeham News Team
Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. Credit: Leeham News.
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Deliveries for the Airbus A350 fell last year compared with 2024, reflecting supply chain challenges.
Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said, “The ‘stagnation’ of A350 deliveries is not a lack of demand. There is a center section of the A350 fuselage that is being built by a company formerly known as Spirit Aerosystems. They ran into trouble. They were the pacing item.”
Airbus acquired Spirit’s Airbus business when the company merged with Boeing in December. “Now that we have regained, let’s say, control of that particular center fuselage piece on section 15 of the A350, you will see the A350 continue its ramp up,” Scherer said during the annual Airbus media briefing of its annual orders and deliveries results.
Dissecting the results reveals:
The Abundance Problem: Why the FAA Has Spent 40 Years Modernizing Air Traffic Control—and Still Isn’t Done
By Vincent E. Bianco III
FAA Veteran and Senior Aviation Safety Consultant
Guest Column
Credit: Federal Aviation Administration.
Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Presidential administrations and Congresses dating to the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 
1957 have failed to adequately fund the agency and modernize the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. An insider examines why.—Editor.
Introduction: A Crisis of Process Over Progress
In their book Abundance: What America Gets Wrong About Capitalism and What We Can Do to Fix It, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson describe a phenomenon in which institutions become paralyzed by process—where layers of well-intentioned rules accumulate, each logical in isolation, but together quietly stifling the very progress they intend to nurture.
This scenario is not theoretical for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); it is a reality for anyone involved in its modernization programs. The FAA’s experience over the past four decades serves as a case study in how process can overwhelm purpose.
Airbus meets revised delivery target in 2025, touts sales performance for A350
By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 12, 2026, © Leeham News: Airbus confirmed today that it delivered 793 jetliners last year. This was on a target revised downward from 820 guided at the beginning of the year.
A late 2025 quality issue involving fuselage panels on the A320 resulted in a reduced target.
Christian Scherer, who relinquished his position as CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, responds to a question during his final press conference today wearing that hat. Credit: Leeham News.
Officials also said that the number of engineless A320 “gliders” was reduced from a peak of 60 last year to a “manageable” small number. Despite continued supply-chain difficulties for interiors, Christian Scherer said that there aren’t any widebody airplanes parked awaiting components.
Scherer officially relinquished his title as CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft on Dec. 31. This was his last press conference in that role. He remains with Airbus for the next six months in a transition role with his successor, Lars Wagner.
Scherer and Benoit de Saint-Exupéry, EVP Sales Commercial Aircraft, said sales of the flagship, top-of-the-line aircraft, the A350, are gaining momentum. Orders were signed for 193 A350s last year. A Memorandum of Understanding from Air Europa, which will be finalized this year, is intended to replace aging Boeing 787s.
“I want to particularly highlight the Air Europa order for 20 A350-900s,” said Saint-Exupéry. “With this move, Air Europa recognizes the A350 platform as the right tool for the next chapter of growth, including the superior economics and performance of our technology to replace their existing 787 fleet.
“As we are reaching the first wave of replacements of the early 787 fleets, we are confident that other airlines will reach the same conclusion as Air Europa with the A350-900, but also that of many other airlines which have already decided to replace their 777 fleet with the A350-1000,” he said.
However, Boeing had a banner year for 787 sales, too.
Outlook 2026: Embraer well positioned, but new airplane launch fraught with risk
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By Tom Batchelor and Karl Sinclair
January 12, 2026, © Leeham News: Embraer enters the new year in a strong position: financially sound, operationally stable, and arguably in prime position to disrupt the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.
Credit: Embraer.
After several years of decline, Boeing is on the up but for now it remains consumed by certification challenges, while Airbus shows little desire to disturb a production system that is sold out well into the next decade.
Against this backdrop, all eyes are on Embraer to see what it will do next.
The company is known to be exploring a new airplane design in the 180-240 seat range. However, analysts suggest 2026 is unlikely to bring a significant step forward.
Rather, Embraer is likely to focus on maximising sales of its existing commercial aircraft, strengthening its industrial base, and expanding its services business.
Open Forum Week of Jan. 12
Jan. 12, 2026: LNA’s Comments Open Forum allows Readers opportunities to comment about any post (note, we said “Post”, not any “Topic”). All comments will be held for review and Moderation per our new policy. The Open Forum enables Readers to Comment on paywall articles (to the extent the paywall preview is open to all readers).
Maintain civility and follow Reader Comment rules.
A new Open Forum will be posted weekly.
Boeing, others up SAF plans in Washington State
Credit: Boeing.
Announced on Thursday at Boeing Future of Flight, the museum located adjacent to Boeing’s Everett production facility, the Cascadia Sustainable Aviation Accelerator (CSAA) aims to ramp the region’s SAF production capacity to one billion gallons per year by 2035.
Bjorn’s Corner: Faster aircraft development. Part 22. Serial Production.
By Bjorn Fehrm and Henry Tam.
January 9, 2026, ©. Leeham News: We do a series about ideas on how the long development times for large airliners can be shortened. New projects talk about cutting development time and reaching certification and production faster than previous projects.
The series will discuss the typical development cycles for an FAA Part 25 aircraft, called a transport category aircraft, and what different ideas there are to reduce the development times.
We will use the Gantt plan in Figure 1 as a base for our discussions. We have completed flight testing of the flight test aircraft and obtained a design Type Certificate (TC). We now examine the production preparations and the serial production phase.
Figure 1. A generic new Part 25 airliner development plan. Source: Leeham Co. Click to see better.
Boeing is on its way back, but there’s a long way to go
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By Scott Hamilton and Karl Sinclair
Jan. 8, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing is on its way back.
Not to its glory days of engineering prowess. This won’t happen until Boeing develops a new airplane, and just how advanced it will be.
Boeing hopes the long-delay certification of the 737-7 MAX will occur this year. Launch customer Southwest Airlines looks for entry into service in 2027. Credit: Boeing.
But it’s on its way back to returning to a profitable, reliable company that puts safety and quality first.
That said, there is still a long way to go. By LNA’s estimation, it will be well into the next decade before Boeing’s balance sheet bears any resemblance to its 2018 financial picture of solid profits and low debt. That was the last year before Boeing entered what became six years of one crisis after another. Boeing ended 2018 with a “mere” $10bn in long-term debt. Revenues hit $101bn with an operating profit of $10.4bn and operating cash flow of $15.3bn.
Boeing ended the third quarter last year with more than $50bn in long-term debt, and near-breakeven if slight positive cash flow. Full-year 2025 results will be announced at the end of this month.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 2018 produced about 60% of the company’s revenues.
This year will build on Boeing’s momentum from last year. As always, especially in Boeing’s case, any Outlook is contingent on things outside of the company’s control upsetting the business.
Here’s how LNA sees the 2026 Outlook for Boeing.
Comments Open Forum
Jan. 6, 2026: LNA is creating this Comments Open Forum to allow Readers opportunities to comment about any post (note, we said “Post”, not any “Topic”). All comments will be held for review and Moderation per our new policy. The Open Forum enables Readers to Comment on paywall articles (to the extent the paywall preview is open to all readers). LNA is increasingly shifting to paywall from freewall articles, but we are not becoming exclusively paywall.
Maintain civility and follow Reader Comment rules.
A new Open Forum will be posted weekly.
Airbus adds emphasis for A220 to regional airlines; adding high-density version
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By Scott Hamilton
Jan. 6, 2026, © Leeham News: Airbus is tweaking the marketing messaging for the A220 to boost sales for regional airline operations.
Marketing for the A220 began as the C Series when Bombardier launched the program in 2008. Bombardier positioned the 100-seat CS100 as a replacement for the Airbus A318 and Boeing 737-500/600. The 130-seat CS300 was designed to replace the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737-700. The Airbus and Boeing airplanes are considered mainline aircraft as opposed to regional airliners.
The A220-100 is a “necessary” part of the family, Airbus says. Credit: Airbus.
Bombardier also design a larger CS500, but didn’t launch the program. The CS500 would be a direct competitor to the A320 and 737-800/8.
Airbus continued this marketing approach when it agreed to purchase control of the C Series program in 2017, renaming it the A220-100 and A220-300. Airbus says it’s a matter of when, not if, it will proceed with the A220-500.
However, at an event hosted by the European Regional Airlines Association, Airbus told regional carriers the A220 is a choice airplane for them if they have ambitions to spread their wings, so to speak.
Benjamin Peiron, VP Single Aisle Marketing for Airbus, told LNA in an interview last month that this message didn’t represent a shift in marketing strategy. “It’s more focused, I would say. If we look at the operator base of A220, it’s about half composed of legacy carriers, [like] Air France, Delta, Air Canada. About one third is from so-called regional airlines, whatever the exact definition is. The rest is hybrid low-cost or equivalent.”