The quarter in numbers
Airbus booked 29 gross orders for the A350 in the third quarter of 2026 and delivered 12 of the jets, according to its orders and deliveries data for July through September.
All of the orders came from three deals: a top-up from Riyadh Air, a new order from Air China and eight freighters for a customer Airbus has not named. Deliveries went to seven airlines, led by Emirates with four.
Airbus's running total for the A350 rose from 1,595 orders at the end of June to 1,624 at the end of September, the same 29 aircraft. That means no A350 cancellations cut into the quarter's orders, so gross and net were equal.
Orders: 29 jets in three deals
| Date booked | Customer | Model | Aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 15 | Riyadh Air | A350-1000 | 6 |
| August 14 | Air China | A350-900 | 15 |
| August 31 | Undisclosed customer | A350F | 8 |
| Q3 total | 29 |
Riyadh Air firmed up six more A350-1000s in July, Airbus announced. That took the new Saudi airline to 31 on firm order, as we covered in our Riyadh Air order story.
Air China signed for 15 A350-900s on July 17, the airline said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing. The list price was about $6.09 billion before discounts, and the airline said Airbus had granted "considerable price concessions." Airbus counted the order in August. Its Chinese filing said the jets will arrive between 2030 and 2032, ch-aviation reported. Shenzhen Airlines, an Air China subsidiary, ordered 40 A320neo-family jets at the same time.
Eight A350 freighters went to a buyer listed only as "undisclosed" in Airbus's data.
There were no A350 orders in September, when Airbus booked just 17 jets across all models, all of them single-aisle planes.
Deliveries: 12 jets to seven airlines
| Month | A350-900 | A350-1000 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| July | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| August | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| September | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Q3 total | 7 | 5 | 12 |
By customer:
- Emirates: four A350-900s, on July 16, July 30, July 31 and September 30
- Starlux Airlines: two A350-1000s, in July and August
- Philippine Airlines: two A350-1000s, in July and August
- Air France: one A350-900, in July
- Qatar Airways: one A350-1000, in August
- Lufthansa: one A350-900, in September
- Delta Air Lines: one A350-900, in September
No A350 freighters were delivered. The A350F is still in testing and made its first flight in September.
Emirates is putting its new A350s to work fast, with recent launches to Helsinki and Mauritius. Lufthansa will fly its first A350-1000, a different model, from Munich to Tokyo-Haneda in December.
How the year looks
Through September, Airbus has delivered 38 A350s in 2026, its data shows. Across all models it delivered 547 jets in the first nine months, and it needs a big final quarter to reach its target of about 870, as our September deliveries story explains.
The pace for the A350 was slow. Twelve deliveries in three months works out to four a month.
What comes next
Airbus has not yet published its third-quarter results or its October order data. Aviation Week reported that the company's third-quarter earnings call is set for October 28. October has already brought new A350 business, including Biman Bangladesh's order for four A350-900s. For a running list of this month's deals, see our October orders tracker.
Why it matters to travelers
More A350s mean more premium cabins and longer nonstops. Philippine Airlines, for example, wants its A350-1000s for nonstop flights to the US East Coast and Canada. But with only about four A350s rolling out each month, airlines waiting for the jet will keep flying older planes for a while yet.
