Aerospace & Defence Update: Solid A320/A350 overbooking supports the ramp

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Aerospace & Defence Update: Solid A320/A350 overbooking supports the ramp

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Aerospace & Defence Update

Solid A320/A350 overbooking supports the

ramp

Price Objective Change

Overbooking protects A350/A320 production ramp 26 May 2026

Last week Reuters reported that Airbus has made further adjustments to delivery slots Equity

on the A350 towards the end of the decade. We don’t see this as surprising, given there Europe

is typically a degree of overbooking to protect the production ramp from customer Aerospace & Defence

deferrals. Our comparison of the A350 and A320 orderbook vs our delivery expectations

shows a clear level of overbooking through 2029. While this means that some of these BenjaminResearch AnalystHeelan >>

orders will need to be pushed back, we think this provides a degree of downside Merrill Lynch (DIFC)

+44 20 7996 5723

protection for the production ramp mid-term. To us, the A350 production ramp up is one benjamin.heelan@bofa.com

of the main levers to expand commercial margins mid-term, which we see as reaching Ronald J. Epstein

the mid-teens level towards the end of the decade. Research Analyst

BofAS

Quantifying the buffer vs BofAE deliveries +1r.epstein@bofa.com646 855 5695

The chart below compares the current backlog of the A350 against BofAE deliveries for Lorenzo Di Patrizi >>

2027-2030. We see the A350 programme currently overbooked by 32 aircraft in 2027 Research Analyst

MLI (UK)

and 17 in 2028, before reaching steady-state production at c12/mnth in 2029. In +44 20 7995 7626

aggregate, these c50 aircraft of cumulative overbooking provide a structural buffer for lorenzo.dipatrizi@bofa.com

the production ramp mid-term. The same is true of the A320 ramp (Exhibit on page 2)