Boeing delivered 280 737 MAX jets between January and September while Airbus sent its customers 442 A320neo family aircraft until October.
Protagonists in the narrow-body jet market, the two models account for the majority of commercial aircraft sales in the world, but they are not alone.
Two modern and economical jets have been seeking their place in the sun for a few years, but have had difficulty convincing potential customers of their advantages, the A220 and the E2, from Embraer.
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The Airbus aircraft, which has been in service since July 2016, was born in Canada as the C Series through its former owner, Bombardier.
A few years later, however, the company became so indebted that it decided to sell the program to the European planemaker, which renamed it A220.
Since then, Airbus has made improvements to the jets and started offering them to its wide range of customers. The result is that the A220 has grown in orders while production, currently carried out in Mirabel (Canada) and Mobile (USA), does not reach higher levels.
Embraer, in turn, decided to rethink its successful E-Jet family, which comprised aircraft with 70 to 124 seats.
The company designed new wings, improved its construction and systems and replaced the GE CF-34 engines with the Pratt & Whitney GTF, with the innovative geared propulsion system.
The E2s also grew: the E175-E2, the E190-E2 and the E195-E2 started to offer more seats, seeking new customers. However, the smallest version was blocked by a ban on its use in the United States, its largest potential market.
The E190-E2, first to enter service in 2018, has also not attracted many sales so far. The E195-E2, with capacity for up to 146 passengers, has been a pleasant surprise as it is a direct competitor to the A220-300 and even capable of competing for space with models such as the 737-7 and the A319neo.
Airbus with an advantage over Embraer
With the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic absorbed, Airbus and Embraer are looking to increase production of the A220 and E2 while closing new orders.
In 2023, both series will already accumulate robust delivery numbers. The A220, as expected, had more deliveries than the E2 until October.
Airbus has already sent 50 A220s to its customers, 48 of which are the A220-300. Embraer had delivered 21 E195-E2 models by September while it has not yet delivered any E190-E2 in 2023.
This is, however, the highest level of E2 deliveries so far, surpassing 2021. In October, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer sent two more E195-E2s to Porter Airlines, from Canada, bringing the total to 23 aircraft this year .
As can be seen, Airbus has a wide advantage in the dispute between the two jets, motivated by the unbeatable wider negotiation margin and high production capacity.
In fact, the A220 already had 819 firm orders by the end of last month while the E2 family had 280 orders by September – Embraer only releases its data every quarter.
The active fleet is also quite unequal between the two models with 92 E2 jets and 296 A220s in service.
Nothing that compares only to the presence of the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320, but everything suggests that little by little the two planes will be more common in airports than they are today.
