Both OEMs are promising rates neither has ever achieved
Announced end-state monthly production rate by single-aisle programme. All three are stated targets, not approved or achieved rates.
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About this data
Airbus targets 70–75 A320-family aircraft a month by end-2027, stabilising at 75. Boeing has named 52 a month as the step beyond the 47 it began transitioning to in Q2 2026, with no published FAA approval date for either 52 or a timetable to reach it. Set those against what actually happened in 2025: Airbus averaged 50.6 A320-family aircraft a month across the year and Boeing 37.3 737s. The A320 target is therefore a 48% increase on a rate the programme has already been at for years, and the 737 target is a 39% increase from a line that spent twenty-one months under a regulatory cap. Neither company has ever built single-aisle aircraft at its own stated target rate. The A220 target of 13 a month by 2028 is a near-doubling of the 93 aircraft delivered in all of 2025.
Both OEMs are promising rates neither has ever achieved
Announced end-state monthly production rate by single-aisle programme. All three are stated targets, not approved or achieved rates.
Data table
| series | programme | source_ref | value_basis | rate_per_month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rate_targets | A320 family | airbus-h1-2026 | TARGET, not achieved: "A320 Family: 70–75 aircraft/month by end 2027, stabilising at 75" | 75 |
| rate_targets | 737 MAX | boeing-q2-2026 | TARGET, not achieved: stated step beyond the 47/month transition begun in Q2 2026; no FAA approval date published | 52 |
| rate_targets | A220 | airbus-h1-2026 | TARGET, not achieved: "A220: monthly rate of 13 aircraft targeted in 2028" | 13 |
Methodology & sources
Last updated: Aug 14, 2026Methodology
This index answers one question: the single-aisle duopoly has sold roughly a decade of production it has not built — can it build it? Every chart isolates one input to that answer: how deep the queue is, which way it is moving, what rates have been announced against it, what is actually coming off the lines, and whether the engine makers are keeping up. SCOPE. Single-aisle programmes only: A320neo family, A220, 737 MAX and the residual 737 NG book. Twin-aisle figures appear only where they are needed as a denominator (the June output-mix chart). BASIS — BACKLOG COMPARISON. The June source reports the Boeing 737 backlog as one combined line (4,888); the July source splits it into MAX (4,817) and NG (34). The July value in the month-on-month chart is the sum, 4,851, so both months sit on the same basis. That addition is stated in the value_basis of the point. It is arithmetic on two published figures, not an estimate. CAVEAT — TARGETS ARE NOT RATES. Every value in the rate-target chart is a stated management target with a future date, not an approved or achieved rate. Airbus has announced 70-75 A320-family aircraft a month by end-2027 and 13 A220s a month in 2028. Boeing has named 52 a month as the step beyond the 47 it began transitioning to in Q2 2026, with NO published FAA approval and no timetable. For scale, the 2025 realised monthly averages were 50.6 (A320 family), 37.3 (737) and 7.8 (A220). No single-aisle programme at either company has ever run at its own stated target rate. CAVEAT — ENGINES, ONE FAMILY ONLY. GE Aerospace publishes LEAP delivery GROWTH percentages and does not publish absolute LEAP unit counts, so the engine chart is in percent and the base is unknown. Pratt & Whitney GTF delivery counts, which cover the other half of the A320neo book, were sought and not found in a citable primary release; they are OMITTED rather than estimated. Read that chart as evidence about one engine family, not about total narrowbody engine supply. CAVEAT — ONE MONTH IS NOT A TREND. The June-to-July backlog movement and the June output-mix split are single-month observations. July is an order-announcement-heavy month in this industry. They are shown because they are cleanly sourced and directional, not because one month establishes a rate. SOURCE TIERS. Company primary disclosure (Airbus, Boeing, GE Aerospace) is used wherever the figure exists there. Monthly backlog splits are not published in that form by either OEM and come from a trade compilation; the Boeing year-to-date figure from that compilation reconciles exactly against Boeing’s own quarterly releases (143 + 171 + 53 = 367), which is the corroboration standard applied. SUPERSEDES. This index absorbs and extends the three H1-2026 sections of /data/airbus-vs-boeing, which remains live so no URL is lost. Compiled and verified 2026-08-14. Working sheet with every source passage: Topics_Content/data/batch-6_aerospace_2026-08-14.md
Sources
- Airbus — Half-Year 2026 results, 29 July 2026 ↗ Company primary disclosure
- Boeing — Second Quarter 2026 results, 28 July 2026 ↗ Company primary disclosure
Comparisons are informative, not definitive. See each source for definitions and limits.