Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has announced record deliveries and orders for 2013, ensuring its status as the world’s largest plane maker for the second consecutive year.
Despite falling in a year which saw the US giant experience problems with its 787 Dreamliner planes, it delivered a record 648 commercial jets last year and had a backlog of 5,080 orders at the end of 2013.
Rival Airbus will announce its final tally next week, but confirmed in November it had delivered 562 jets for 90 customers, with a backlog of more than 5,400 aircraft, an industry record.
Boeing commercial airplanes president, Ray Conner, said on Monday that the record orders proved the Boeing team “performed extremely well in 2013” while confirming three of its US-based commercial plane factories had delivered a record number of planes.
The record deliveries for Boeing come despite a series of problems with its 787 Dreamliner last year, which saw deliveries halted for four months due to a Japan Airlines flight being grounded in January following a battery catching fire.
When production resumed in May, Boeing built 65 787 Dreamliners for the rest of the year, with 25 delivered in the final three months of 2013.
