Airbus deliveries plunge in first half

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus deliveries plunged to 196 aircraft in the first half of the year from 389 in the same period a year earlier, the planemaker said on Wednesday.

Deliveries have been crippled by the coronavirus crisis, which brought a halt to a lengthy aerospace industry boom and wrecked expectations for another record year of output.

Airbus also reported 365 gross orders for the first half, or 298 net orders after stripping away cancellations, the first figure being unchanged versus the total reported for the January-May period. Net orders are down one compared to the total published a month ago.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)