Toulouse had a big month on paper and a merely solid one on the ramp. Airbus booked 202 gross orders in October 2026, and three leasing companies alone accounted for 185 of them.

On the delivery side, Airbus handed over 74 jets to 45 customers, taking its 2026 total to 621. That is a healthy pace, but the company's target of around 870 deliveries for the year now demands roughly 125 aircraft in each of November and December.

Lessors Do the Heavy Lifting

The Airbus October orders were dominated by aircraft financiers. Avolon took 75 single-aisles, 23 A320neos and 52 A321neos, and through its subsidiary CIT Leasing added 35 A330-900s, according to aeroTELEGRAPH. Aviation Capital Group signed for another 75, split between 40 A320neos and 35 A321neos. Investing.com's tally of the official figures gives the same 75, 75 and 35.

The Avolon deal itself was announced on 10 October as part of a 250-jet split order with Boeing, which Afterburner covered at the time. October's monthly report is where those aircraft formally land in the Airbus ledger.

The rest came in smaller packets. Biman Bangladesh firmed six A321neos and four A350-900s, Atlantic Airways ordered two A320neos and an undisclosed customer took five A321neos. The only cancellations of the month were two A220-300s.

Biman's deal had also been trailed in advance: Afterburner reported on 8 October that the Bangladeshi flag carrier was ordering A350s and A321neos alongside an agreement with Boeing. Like the Avolon order, it now counts as firm business in the official tally.

Reading the Numbers

Airbus reports orders gross, before cancellations, and nets them out over the year. Across January to October that means 1,376 gross orders, 71 cancellations and 1,305 net orders. The October cancellations were tiny by comparison, just two A220-300s against 202 new aircraft.

The mix matters as much as the total. Of the 202 aircraft ordered in October, 163 were A320neo-family single-aisles, 35 were A330-900s and four were A350-900s. Lessors such as Avolon and Aviation Capital Group buy in bulk and place aircraft with airlines later, so their orders tend to arrive in large, round numbers and give the backlog a steady base.

Seventy-Four Jets Out the Door

October's 74 deliveries were overwhelmingly single-aisles: 39 A321neos, 15 A320neos, nine A220-300s and one A319neo. Widebody output was thin, with four A330-900s and six A350s handed over, according to Investing.com.

Over ten months, the 621 deliveries break down into 560 single-aisle jets, 17 A330s and 44 A350s. The total is about 6% higher than at the same point last year, and Airbus has delivered to 91 different customers so far in 2026.

Flightradar24 goes behind the scenes at Airbus Hamburg, one of the sites building the A321 family that dominated October's deliveries.

The October figure did not come as a shock. Bloomberg News reported on 5 November, citing people familiar with the matter, that Airbus had delivered about 74 aircraft. Reuters, which could not immediately verify the report, noted that Airbus does not comment before publishing its official orders and deliveries data.

The Year-End Sprint

Airbus stuck to its target of about 870 deliveries at its third-quarter results in October, a number that would be its highest annual tally ever. After 547 deliveries in the first nine months and 74 in October, it now needs 249 more before 31 December.

That is a steep climb, but not an unfamiliar one. Airbus traditionally loads its deliveries towards the end of the year, and chief executive Guillaume Faury projected confidence after the third-quarter results that the company would meet its goal.

The risk sits in the supply chain. Reuters points out that Airbus has trimmed delivery forecasts in the past because of engine shortages and broader supply-chain disruption, and a two-month push of this size leaves little room for another hiccup at a supplier.

Still Well Ahead of Boeing

Even with the gap to its target, Airbus remains comfortably ahead of its American rival. It had handed over 547 aircraft by the end of September against Boeing's 475, according to Reuters. Boeing's October figures were not yet out when Airbus published its own.

On orders, 1,305 net bookings in ten months give Airbus another thick layer of backlog. The lessors' appetite for A321neos in particular shows where the market's money is going: 87 of October's 202 orders were for the long-bodied single-aisle, which was also the month's most-delivered Airbus.

The November and December figures will decide whether 2026 becomes the record year Airbus has promised. October, at least, has kept that promise alive.

Sources: aeroTELEGRAPH, Investing.com, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Airbus