Boeing may win the order race against Airbus for the first time in six years. Whose stock is better?

Airbus is likely to lose to Boeing in the annual race of orders - for the first time in six years, admitted the CEO of the European aircraft maker Guillaume Faury, reports Reuters. A day earlier, Airbus also worsened its forecast for deliveries in 2025: according to industry representatives, this could further undermine customer confidence in the company.

According to Airbus CEO in an interview with France Inter radio station, Boeing was able to surpass Airbus in the number of orders for the year thanks to the settlement of trade disputes over U.S. duties. As of the end of November, Boeing had 908 net orders (including cancelations), mainly due to strong demand for the long-range 787 Dreamliner, Reuters writes. Airbus has 700 net orders for the same period.

That said, Airbus is still ahead of Boeing in terms of deliveries and backlog of orders, Forey said.

"The fact that we were ahead of the competition on orders for five years means that our backlog is much bigger now," Reuters quoted Forey as saying. - But it is also true that they were helped by the U.S. president as part of duty negotiations with several countries when the aircraft contracts became part of a trade dispute settlement."

On Wednesday, December 9, Airbus reduced its 2025 delivery forecast by 30 airplanes at once. The company now expects to deliver about 790 airliners to customers, while in October it forecasted 820. At the same time, the goals for 2025 on operating profit (€7 billion) and free cash flow (€4.5 billion) remained unchanged, notes Barron's. Wall Street analysts expect Airbus deliveries to reach 900 units in 2026, the publication said.

An updated forecast for Airbus deliveries will be "disappointing" for airlines and reduce confidence in the European manufacturer, International Air Transport Association (IATA) CEO Willie Walsh warned. "It is increasingly recognized that Boeing's performance has improved significantly. People now have much more confidence that Boeing will deliver on its commitments, while confidence in Airbus is declining," Walsh noted(quoted by Reuters).

In late November, Airbus also said it needed to update software for a large part of its A320 fleet of about 6,000 aircraft. This threatened to disrupt air transportation. Forey said in an interview that the software for about 4,000 aircraft had to be updated, and all the work has now been completed.

Airbus told Reuters on Tuesday, December 9, that it had received China's agreement to deliver 120 airliners it had previously ordered. According to industry sources, Airbus had hoped for a contract with China of up to 500 airplanes, Reuters wrote. At the same time, Beijing is negotiating a similar deal with Boeing, the agency added.

Analysts estimate that several airlines in 2025 placed new orders with Boeing or timed announcements of long-planned contracts to coincide with Donald Trump's business trips to reduce tensions with the United States, especially in Asian countries, Reuters writes.

Thus, China has unblocked Boeing deliveries to the country and negotiations are underway to purchase about 500 airplanes. Korean Air has ordered 103 airplanes. Qatar Airways plans to buy at least 160 wide-body Boeing airplanes. Saudi Arabia plans to buy 30 airplanes. U.S. aviation industry officials, meanwhile, say Boeing's wide-body 787s are selling well regardless of trade issues, Reuters added.

Airbus is leading in the segment of narrow-body airliners, which includes the A321. Airbus orders have lagged in recent months, and Forey's words only confirm the probable change of the leader in new contracts, states Reuters. Nevertheless, at the end of the year Airbus is likely to remain the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world due to a larger volume of deliveries, summarizes the agency.

Boeing shares were down about 0.7% in trading on Dec. 10. Since the beginning of 2025 they have risen in price by 12%. The most popular recommendation of analysts is "buy": the company's securities have 19 Buy ratings and four Overweight ratings versus four Hold (advice "hold") and one Sell ("sell"), MarketWatch shows.

Airbus securities ended trading on Wednesday with a decrease of 0.75%. In terms of dynamics in 2025, they are ahead of Boeing: added 25%. They have 16 "buy" recommendations from analysts with five "hold" and one "sell" recommendation, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor