Airbus delivered a total of 181 A320neo-family aircraft last year, as it began to overcome the powerplant snags which had held up deliveries of the re-engined jets.
The airframer had been hoping to achieve some 200 deliveries but was forced to park aircraft without engines while the powerplant suppliers prioritised providing replacement engines for aircraft already in service.
It managed to cut through part of this undelivered backlog which, says commercial aircraft president Fabrice Bregier, amounted to some 60 aircraft.
Some 30 of the parked "gliders" have still to be delivered, he says, but will form part of the company's 2018 output.
Single-aisle aircraft deliveries for 2017 were "supposed to be less ambitious", Bregier says, but instead "became extremely ambitious".
He acknowledges that production of the new powerplants has been "a hell of a challenge" for the engine suppliers.
Airbus says it handed over 108neos fitted with CFM International Leap-1A engines and 73 with the more problematic Pratt & Whitney PW1100G.
Bregier admits this was "not a bright performance" but points out that the delivery figures were close to the target.
Re-engined aircraft accounted for about a third of the overall single-aisle deliveries, which amounted to 558 aircraft last year – an increase of 13 on the previous level.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
