<article><p class="lead">European aerospace manufacturer Airbus' deliveries fell sharply in January-June, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll on the industry.</p><p>Commercial aircraft deliveries fell by 49.6pc to 196 units, down from 389 a year earlier. The company delivered just 74 aircraft in the second quarter — at the peak of the crisis. </p><p>"Airlines remain in a very difficult situation…they have been reviewing their feed planning and we have been working closely with them to find mutually acceptable agreements," chief executive Guillaume Faury said. "Our assessment is that air travel will reach its 2019 level again sometime in 2023-25." US producer Boeing issued a similar warning yesterday, saying the industry will not recover for the next three years. </p><p>Faury also announced that Airbus will reduce output of its A350 wide-body plane to five units per month, down from the usual six units. But net orders for new aircrafts held fairly steady despite the "worst quarter in aviation history", totalling 298 in January-June. The company's backlog of aircrafts on order remained high, at 7,584 units, up by 4.2pc from the first half of 2019.</p><p>Airbus received 61 aircraft order cancellations in January-June, of which just one occurred in the second quarter. The company has inventories of 145 aircraft that it produced but could not deliver in January-June. </p><p>Airbus is one of Europe's largest consumers of aerospace metals and super alloys, and its outlook indicates a slow recovery for prices, which have fallen since the beginning of the pandemic. Prices for aerospace grade TG100 were assessed at $6.80-7.50/kg du Rotterdam on 28 July, down from $8.70-9.20/kg on 2 January, as the virus' spread began to gather pace in China.</p><p class="bylines">By Thomas Kavanagh</p></article>
