ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Qantas Airways will receive its first Airbus A321XLR in December 2024, six months later than first planned, and the average industry delay in receiving the upcoming jet is 12 months, Chief Financial Officer Vanessa Hudson said on Monday.
The remarks from the Australian airline, which is in the midst of a significant renewal of its fleet, came on the sidelines of a global airlines meeting where carriers upped pressure on manufacturers to gain control of weak supply chains.
The A321XLR is a long-range single-aisle jet due to reach the market in the second quarter of 2024.
Airbus declined to comment on specific deliveries, but a top executive told Reuters on Sunday that it was seeing a more predictable pattern in its industrial activities and what appeared to be the start of a more positive trend.
Airbus is due to announce deliveries for May on Wednesday.
Industry sources said Airbus deliveries rose 34% to 63 airliners in May, compared with the same month in 2022, bringing the total for the year to 244.
Airbus is targeting 720 deliveries for the year as a whole.
Reuters reported last week that Airbus had delivered at least 60 jets in May. Airbus declined to comment on unpublished data.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by David Goodman and Jamie Freed)
