Boeing Co. delivered a record 806 commercial aircraft in 2018, edging out Airbus SE to retain the crown as world’s largest planemaker.
The U.S. industrial titan also revealed a December flurry of aircraft orders, enabling it to sell more jets than it built in 2018. Boeing netted orders for 893 jetliners last year with a list value of $143.7 billion, padding its backlog and easing investor concerns that U.S.-China trade tensions and whipsawing oil prices could soften demand for new planes.
For Boeing and Airbus, aerospace’s dueling duopolists, year-end order and delivery totals provide bragging rights—and a first hint of the company earnings reports to be announced over the next month. Airbus met its twice-lowered delivery goal of 800 jets in 2018.
The tallies face special scrutiny this year since both manufacturers worked through the year-end holidays to overcome shortages of engines and other parts that have slowed shipments of their highly profitable single-aisle jets.
Boeing advanced 2.8 percent to $337.38 at 11:16 a.m. in New York, the biggest gain on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Airbus jumped 5.1 percent to 87.82 euros.
The Chicago-based manufacturer delivered 69 of its 737 airplanes in December to bring total shipments of the narrow-body family, its largest source of profit, to 580. That was less than 593 deliveries predicted by George Ferguson, an aerospace analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Boeing fell short of a goal of delivering a total of 810 to 815 jets for the year.
