A330-300 backlog falls to zero 30 years after entry into service

Airbus has removed the only outstanding order for A330-300s from its backlog, an agreement for eight aircraft with China’s state aviation supply firm CASC. The adjustment means all 776 A330-300s on firm order have been delivered, almost exactly 30 years since French airline Air Inter put the first into service in January 1994. CASC placed an order for 30 A330-300s in October 2015, but still had eight aircraft on the airframer’s backlog by 2019. Airbus’s latest full-year backlog data shows the aircraft have been removed. There is no indication which carrier was destined to operate the twinjets. Airbus is still taking orders for the A330-200 shrink, because it is used as the platform for the military MRTT tanker-transport. The A330-300 has evolved into the A330-900 – the larger member of the re-engined A330neo family – which has taken 284 orders. Gross orders for the A330neo during 2023 reached 37 aircraft, all but one the -900 variant. Airbus CCO Christian Scherer, speaking during an 11 January briefing, said the full-year sales figures showed the widebody market was “coming back quite forcefully”.<br/>