Airbus reached exactly 500 deliveries over the first eight months of 2019, an increase of 66 on the same point last year.

The airframer handed over 42 aircraft during August, usually regarded as a holiday period for the company.

Its 500 deliveries comprised 400 single-aisle aircraft – including 26 A220s – plus 100 twin-aisle types, among them 30 A330s, 65 A350s and five A380s.

Twenty-three of the A330s were the re-engined A330neo version. The A350 deliveries included 13 of the larger A350-1000.

Airbus's backlog figures to the end of August show that it secured orders for 15 A321neos from an unidentified customer, all the new long-range A321XLR variant, while a private customer is taking a single A320neo.

These agreements took Airbus net orders to 95 aircraft – and gross orders to 262 – for the first two-thirds of the year.

Source: FlightGlobal.com