High demand for fuel-saving jets helped Boeing close 2013 with a record number of deliveries in its commercial division, the company said on Monday.
The rival to Airbus delivered 648 jets, the most in a single year for the company and 47 more than the year before. Airbus expects to deliver 620 jets, but hasn’t yet released final numbers for the year.
Boeing and Airbus are old rivals in sales of aircraft to the world’s major airlines. For years Airbus sold the most jets, but in 2012, Boeing took over the lead.
The US company says it has every intention of keeping it. Boeing currently has 5,080 unfilled orders for jets on its books, also a record. Many of the orders were placed during the recent airshow in Dubai, where Airbus also secured many new orders.
Boeing’s best-seller remains the 737 series designed for short and medium distances. It delivered a record 440 of them during 2013.
Boeing said two other aircraft set records for deliveries in 2013: the 777 and its newest jet, the 787 Dreamliner. Boeing managed to deliver 65 Dreamliners despite a Federal Aviation Administration order grounding the jet for four months because of battery problems.
With the 787’s problems behind it, Boeing reported in October that its earnings grew by 12 per cent in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2012, to total close to $1.2 billion.