Airbus, Qatar Airways have moved on from aircraft paint job dispute

Airbus, Qatar Airways have moved on from aircraft paint job dispute

Mikail Houari, President of Airbus’ Africa and Middle East operations, stressed that the settlement was not an admission of liability for either party. He also projected short-term pressures to air traffic because of a bleak global GDP outlook. IATA, in its December report, said international traffic in 2022 climbed 152.7 per cent vs 2021 and reached 62.2 per cent of 2019 levels. How do you see the trend holding up in 2023? Air traffic has been recovering continuously since travel restrictions were lifted, with a few notable exceptions. We expect short-term pressures from limited global GDP outlook, fluctuations in oil price and higher inflation, but these are likely to normalise within a few years. According to our latest forecast, demand for passenger traffic will grow annually by 3.6 per cent over the next 20 years. Clearly, there is demand for Airbus products as demonstrated by the strong order book. While orders will remain strong, we can't expect every year to be a record one. The Airbus backlog stands at over 7,200 aircraft. Assuming no additional disruptions to the world economy, air traffic and our ability to deliver products and services, our target is to achieve 720 commercial aircraft deliveries in