October 29: Airbus maintained its target of around 870 commercial-aircraft deliveries for 2026 after delivering 547 jets in the first nine months. Its October 28 results put consolidated revenue at €50.6 billion and adjusted operating earnings at about €4.5 billion for the period ended September 30.
Key highlights
- Nine-month deliveries rose from 507 a year earlier.
- Airbus retained its full-year earnings and cash-flow guidance.
- The commercial-aircraft backlog stood at 9,310.
- Reaching the indicative annual delivery target would require 323 fourth-quarter handovers.
The nine-month results at a glance
| Metric | January–September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Commercial-aircraft deliveries | 547 |
| Consolidated revenue | €50.645 billion |
| Adjusted EBIT | €4.495 billion |
| Reported EBIT | €4.550 billion |
| Free cash flow before customer financing | Minus €1.268 billion |
Adjusted and reported EBIT are distinct presentations in Airbus’s accounts. Free cash flow is another measure, concerning cash generation. Their different signs and amounts should retain those labels when the results are compared.
The year-end delivery arithmetic
Our calculation: an annual target of 870 minus 547 deliveries through September leaves 323 aircraft for the final quarter. That implies an average of roughly 108 a month over October–December, compared with about 61 a month across the preceding nine months.
This is arithmetic based on the company’s approximate target, not a forecast of individual monthly deliveries. Handover patterns can be uneven, so the comparison identifies the scale of the remaining task without establishing the precise delivery path.
Airbus’s separate September delivery record confirms the nine-month total and says those aircraft went to 84 customers. A delivery count measures completed handovers during the reporting period, rather than the number of aircraft under construction at a particular moment.
Which aircraft made up the total
| Aircraft family | Nine-month deliveries |
|---|---|
| A220 | 68 |
| A320 family | 428 |
| A330 | 13 |
| A350 | 38 |
| Total | 547 |
The predominance of the A320 family gives the headline total a particular industrial composition. A change in one programme’s output cannot automatically be applied to every other aircraft family, which has its own production and delivery schedule.
Orders, backlog and guidance answer different questions
Airbus reported 1,105 net commercial-aircraft orders and a backlog of 9,310. An order book records future contracted demand, while deliveries record aircraft handed over. Backlog should not be added to this year’s revenue or treated as aircraft available for immediate airline service.
The company retained guidance of around €7.5 billion in adjusted EBIT and €4.5 billion in free cash flow before customer financing for the full year. It attached assumptions concerning trade, operations and supply-chain disruption to that outlook.
For Asian airlines, the relevant follow-up is the timing of their particular aircraft and the associated entry into service. A global delivery target does not identify a specific airline’s allocation, new route or passenger fare. Those require customer-level announcements and operating plans.
What to watch
October and November delivery disclosures will show the progress towards the year-end target, followed by the full-year accounts. Readers should keep nine-month financial results separate from quarterly results and full-year guidance. The photograph shows an A350’s 2013 first flight and is not a picture of a 2026 customer delivery.
Sources
- Airbus: Nine-month 2026 financial-results release
- Airbus: Orders and deliveries through September 2026
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