Industry Airbus delivers 12,000th aircraft

The milestone-aircraft is an Airbus A220-100 for Delta Air Lines. A ceremony was held at Airbus´ facility in Mirabel, Canada. This delivery underlines the manufacturer´s rapid growth over the past months. In March 2018, Airbus celebrated the delivery of the 11,000th aircraft.

Via Twitter, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury commented: "Following our 12,000th delivery, we look forward to the next milestone. I know the Airbus family will continue putting their incredible talent and devotion into pushing for the most innovative solutions yet – we’ll continue to make it fly!"

That the delivery of aircraft number 12,000 was an A220 to U.S.-carrier Delta Air Lines, underlines the growing presence of Airbus in North America. The manufacturer took over Bombardier´s CSeries program last year and started to deliver the first aircraft from Mirabel. Airbus also has a facility for Airbus A320 Family aircraft in Alabama, which will be used for building the A220 from 2020 onward.

The first aircraft, Airbus has ever delivered, was an A300B2 for Air France, which took off for the first commercial flight in 1974. Decades later, in 2010, Airbus handed over its 6,000th aircraft. From then, the pace of deliveries just continued to accelerate. Just nine years after aircraft 6,000, Airbus reaced the 12,000th delivery. And the manufacturer is continuing to expand Final Assembly Lines and the rate of work.

For customer Delta Air Lines, the delivery represents the take-over of A220-100 Number 12. As the largest customer for the A220, Delta is also the first U.S. airline to operate the aircraft. The carrier started operations with the A220 back in February 2019 and has 90 A220 aircraft on order.

The carrier was founded 94 years ago in 1924 and is one of the largest airlines in the world. Delta has installed multiple hubs at cities like Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York or Seattle. The carrier is a member of the Sky Team alliance and operates with a fleet of 57 Airbus A319s, 62 A320s, 79 A321s, 42 A330s, 13 A350s, 88 Boeing 717s, 213 B737s, 127 B757s, 78 B767s, 18 B777s and 115 MD80s. Just recently, Delta took delivery of its first Airbus A330-900.