Billion-dollar backlog baby

opinion

by Alasdair Whyte

August 17, 2026

All aircraft manufacturers are continuing to sell more aircraft than they are delivering to customers.

Bombardier $21.8bn. Embraer $7.8bn. Gulfstream $23.97bn. Textron $8bn. Pretty soon you are talking real money with manufacturer order books.

All aircraft manufacturers are continuing to sell more aircraft than they are delivering to customers. Bombardier’s 1.5x book-to-bill ratio drove its backlog up 24.6% year-on-year. Gulfstream 1.5-to-1 ratio has contributed to its backlog being up 20.5% compared with June 2025. Gulfstream has had the strongest first half for orders for aerospace since 2022.

Salespeople hate it when they lose an order to a competitor, but as with wildebeest on the savannah, there is comfort in being in a herd.

OEMs still have a lot to do. Embraer Executive Jets delivered 45 executive aviation aircraft in the second quarter. This was up 55% from 29 jets in the first quarter and seven more aircraft than in the same quarter of 2025. This was its strongest ever second quarter since it launched into business aviation 16 years ago.

Embraer delivered 74 jets in the first half of the year but still wants to ship another 96 in the second half. On its analyst call the company said that it expects to produce 200 business jets a year by 2030.

It is noticeable how OEMs are becoming more confident about supply chain issues easing.

“When we look across the areas that maybe we highlighted in the past that were causing some difficulties, there has been a noticeable improvement in the cadence,” said Danny Deep, president, General Dynamics.

“Gulfstream has a very clear relationship that has really given the supply chain visibility into our production plans for whatever period is appropriate. They are able to keep up now, and our expectation is they will be in the future as well.”

Although things are still not perfect. “We are expanding dual-sourcing initiatives to strengthen supplier resiliency and support more consistent parts availability in the factory. At the same time, supply chain conditions continue to improve,” said Lisa Atherton, CEO and president, Textron.

“While we are still managing a handful of pain points, parts availability has improved significantly in recent years, leaving us with a more finite set of issues. We remain actively engaged with these key suppliers.”

This is important for existing owners and operators – who are not celebrating production increases. Many are still having real issues returning aircraft to flying after maintenance events. “It is a problem with every manufacturer,” says one international operator. “We had an issue with a windshield and were told we could get one in six months. That is not how you should treat your customers.”

They know that a day’s delay here and a week’s delay there and pretty soon you are talking about an unhappy owner. And that could cost big money too.