There are 1,761 widebodies on order, meaning they have 13% of all aircraft on order globally. Some 93 airlines, lessors, and other users are down to receive widebodies, with over nine in ten configured for passenger use. The A350-900 has the most orders, but Boeing is in the lead if all widebodies are considered.
Boeing has the lead on widebody orders, according to analysis of ch-aviation.com's database. The manufacturer has six in ten orders in North America, while Airbus has just over half in Europe. This can be seen below.
|
Continent/region |
Airbus orders |
Boeing orders |
Total |
|---|
Asia leads, but so does the US
Not surprisingly, Asia has over half (53%) of all widebody orders. This results from 43 operators/lessors ordering them and is influenced by the Middle East – and therefore juggernauts Emirates and Qatar Airways – not being separate here.
Asia has nearly three times as many widebodies on order as North America. However, on a country basis, the United States has the most with 315, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 271, as follows.
- United States: 315 widebodies on order
- United Arab Emirates: 271
- Undisclosed: 135
- Qatar: 108
- Malaysia: 78
- Germany: 76
- Japan: 67
- China: 66
- Singapore: 65
- Iran: 52
Emirates has the most widebodies on order
Emirates has 199 widebodies on order or just over one in ten. Of these, Boeing has 116 and Airbus 54, broken down as follows.
- B777-9s: 99
- A350-900s: 50
- B787-9s: 30
- B777-8s: 16
- A380s: 4
Earlier this year, the Dubai hub-and-spoke carrier said its first B777Xs, of which the vast majority are the -9s, will be delivered from 2024 owing to significant delays. However, in an interview broadcast on Monday, May 24th, Tim Clark said that Boeing had told them that the first would arrive in late 2023. The uncertainty continues.
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The A350 and B787 are neck-and-neck
Across all operators, lessors, regions, and configurations, widebody orders at family level are summarized as follows. The A350 has 491 orders against 488 for the B787, with the pair having 55% of the total.
- A350: 491 orders
- B787: 488
- B777X: 320
- A330neo: 270
- B767: 92
- B777: 55
- A330: 30
- B747-8: 11
- A380: 4
If the A350 and B787 are combined, the US, UAE, China, Germany, and Qatar are the leading countries. The US is number-one for A350 as well as B787 orders.
The A350 has many more orders than the 787 across Africa, thanks to Afriqiyah Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Libyan Airlines, and Air Mauritius. However, only the 787 is on order in Oceania, with Qantas and Air New Zealand expecting them.
The A350-900 is number-one
Across all widebodies variants, it is the A350-900 that has the most orders, with 377, as shown below. It has about three and a half times as many as the larger -1000.
- A350-900: 377 orders
- B787-9: 323
- B777-9: 286
- A330-900: 259
- B787-10: 126
- A350-1000: 114
- B767-2C(KC-46A): 55
- B777-200F: 43
- B787-8: 38
- B767-300F: 37
- B777-8: 34
- A330-300: 13
- B747-8(F): 11
- A330-800: 11
- B777-300(ER): 11
- A330-200(MRTT): 9
- A330-200: 8
- A380-800: 4
- B777-200(LR): 1
- B787-8(BBJ): 1
The A350-900
Asia is expecting the most -900s and it also the highest number of customers (15). Four customers are from China, the most of any nation, across Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, and Sichuan Airlines.
However, it is the US that has the greatest number of -900s on order (64), thanks to United, Delta, and Air Lease Corporation, followed by the UAE (50), China (46), France (29), and Germany (26). Simple Flying recently showed how the A350-900 has become Lufthansa's main aircraft to North America.
What is your preferred widebody on order? Let us know in the comments.