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Airbus 2016 Orders Beat Boeing's Again, Backlog Strong

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Airbus Group SE (EADSY - Free Report) revealed its commercial aircraft orders and delivery numbers for 2016. Airbus registered net booking of 731 aircraft, beating its archrival The Boeing Company’s (BA - Free Report) booking of 668 planes during the year.

However, Boeing delivered a higher number of planes to its customers across the globe than Airbus. Specifically, Boeing and Airbus delivered 748 and 688 aircraft, respectively, in 2016.

Since Boeing and Airbus are the two largest players in the commercial aircraft space and therefore direct rivals, competition in the industry is intensifying. At the end of 2016, total commercial airline industry backlog stood at 12,589 aircraft, out of which Airbus’ share was 55% or 6,874 aircraft, while Boeing has a 45% share or 5,715 aircraft.

Details of Order & Deliveries

Looking at Airbus’ 2016 order details, the company booked 731 net commercial orders (accounting for cancellations), valued at $104.9 billion at current list prices. This includes orders for 607 single-aisle planes and 124 widebody jets.

In 2016, the company delivered 688 aircraft, higher than its last delivery guidance of 670. The numbers reflect an 8% year-over-year increase.

Airbus aims to deliver more than 700 aircraft in 2017.

Bookings to Fall?

Boeing anticipates the worldwide commercial fleet to double over the next two decades to 45,240 airplanes by the end of 2035, backed by sustained 4.8% annual growth in commercial passenger traffic. For that, the world will need 39,620 new planes, worth $5.9 trillion, between 2016 and 2035.

However, in the near term, Airbus expects new bookings to drop from the prior-year levels, as aircraft manufacturers will be busy delivering on their current backlog, which continues to grow.

Deliveries Taking Long

Speaking hypothetically, if Boeing and Airbus maintained their 2016 delivery levels and no new orders were received or cancelled, they would need 7.6 and 9.9 years, respectively, to clear their existing backlog.

Although Embraer S.A. (ERJ - Free Report) is another major player in this space, the company specializes in smaller aircraft, which means that customers have no other option but need to wait for Boeing or Airbus to deliver the desired model.

Price Movement

Shares of Airbus have gained 19.3% over the last three months, outperforming the Zacks categorized Aerospace–Defense industry’s gain of 15.1%.



Its outperformance could have been backed by the company’s strong order book and leading position in the single-aisle aircraft market with its A320 model.

Zacks Rank & a Key Pick

Airbus currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the same space is Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT - Free Report) , which sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Lockheed’s earnings beat estimates by 26.2% in the last reported quarter. Its Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2017 moved up by 1.2% in the last 60 days to $12.63.

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