Airbus expanded Gulf business in 2025 despite global challenges

• Flydubai ordered 150 Airbus planes
• Wide-bodies were popular in Gulf
• Global deliveries up 4% on 2024

Airbus ended 2025 on a strong footing in the Gulf, with heightened demand helping cap what senior executives described as “a pretty good year” for the European aircraft manufacturer in the region.

Momentum was bolstered in November when flydubai ordered 150 single-aisle Airbus jets, one of several major commitments from Gulf carriers. The budget airline’s first ever Airbus deal, for their A321neo models, was signed at the Dubai Airshow and valued at about $24 billion, with deliveries starting in 2031.

The order is still being finalised and will therefore be counted in Airbus’s 2026 order book, Benoît de Saint-Exupéry, executive vice president for sales in the group’s commercial aircraft division, said on Monday. He was speaking at a virtual press conference reviewing the company’s sales and deliveries for the year just ended.

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Saudi Arabia’s newest airline, Riyadh Air, placed an order at June’s Paris Airshow for 25 Airbus A350-1000 jets, a large wide-body plane for long-haul flights.

In April, state carrier Saudia’s budget subsidiary Flyadeal ordered 10 Airbus A330neos, its first purchase for this type of plane. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad also became a first-time customer for A330neos in November.

“So, [it was] a great year on the wide-body front,” de Saint-Exupéry said. “And watch this space for more to come in the next few weeks and months in this region, which is extremely dynamic, both on the wide-body and on the single as well.”

Emirates Airlines, Flynas, Flyadeal and Qatar Airways all took deliveries from Airbus in 2025, according to data shared by the aircraft manufacturer on its website.  

Airbus delivered 793 commercial planes to 91 customers worldwide, and took in 889 new orders, yielding a year-end record backlog of 8,754 units, the company said in a press release. 

Deliveries in 2025 were up 4 percent over the previous 12 months, keeping Airbus on an “upward trajectory” even though they ended below expectations due to geopolitical and trade tensions, according to Christian Scherer, outgoing CEO for commercial aircraft.

Further reading:

• Gulf airlines foresee further delays from Airbus and Boeing
• Emirates kicks off race between Airbus and Boeing for bigger jets
• Delayed Airbus deliveries a ‘bit of indigestion’ for Flyadeal

Late-arriving engines for single-aisle aircraft and, more importantly, flaws in a supplier’s fuselage panels triggered additional inspections and delays.

“The engines came late. That explains the back-loading of deliveries inside the year,” Scherer said during the press conference. “But in the end it was the panels that held us back. Had we not had the panels, we would have delivered about 820 airplanes.”   

Flyadeal’s CEO Steven Greenway described delays in expected Airbus deliveries as “a bit of a struggle”. 

“It was not where we wanted it to be,” he told AGBI in November. 

Scherer is being succeeded by Lars Wagner at the helm of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. The company will release its financial disclosures for 2025 on February 19.