Daily Times

Airbus is set to beat Boeing to be the world’s largest jetmaker for the second year in a row, ending 2020 by resuming deliveries of its A380 superjumbo to Emirates, though its final deliveries are likely to have dropped 35% from 2019 due to the pandemic. There were no immediate reports on Tuesday of deliveries or production being disrupted by travel bans imposed by many countries on Britain, where Airbus makes wings. No flights have been scheduled over the Christmas break of special Beluga transport planes, which carry aircraft sections under an exemption from most coronavirus travel restrictions. Barring widespread new travel upheaval, industry sources expect Airbus to deliver 550-560 planes in 2020 after it reached more than 520 this week, with nine days of the year still to go. But they cautioned deliveries are subject to an unusual number of variables and schedules are not set in stone. Airbus is unlikely to repeat a record surge of more than 100 deliveries in December last year. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on specifics, but said Airbus continued to operate normally. “We continue to deliver at full steam and this will continue over the holidays,” he said. Airbus said on Monday it had delivered an A330neo to Uganda Airlines, though fresh doubts have surfaced over similar jets already built for troubled AirAsia X.