Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Aircraft backlog keeps climbing
Aerospace | Supply Chain Management
May 2, 2024 – Air travel demand soared after a precipitous drop at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it hasn’t let up. Commercial-aerospace OEMs and suppliers are finding it challenging to keep up, senior partner Mike Parkins and coauthors note. New aircraft orders total about 15,700, and filling the record-high open-order backlog would take 13 years at 2023 delivery rates.
To read the article, see “Addressing continued turbulence: The commercial-aerospace supply chain,” April 3, 2024.
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Visual form
Unit chart.
Layout / body structure
The page uses a large tiled block for the open-order backlog and a much smaller tiled inset for aircraft deliveries. The reading order is from the smaller delivery block into the much larger backlog field that fills most of the page.
What is being compared
It compares commercial aerospace aircraft deliveries in 2023 with the size of the open-order backlog.
Measurement system
The values are numbers of aircraft. The tile count and overall block size carry the comparison, and the numeric labels printed beside the two blocks state the actual totals.
Visible structure inside the graphic
A small light-blue tiled square at the upper left represents deliveries, while an enormous dark-blue tiled rectangle fills the rest of the chart to represent the backlog. The stark contrast in area makes the imbalance visually immediate.
Main takeaway from the visual
The visual shows that the order backlog is vastly larger than annual deliveries, so production is still far behind the level needed to work down the queue of open aircraft orders.
Key standout values or extremes
Aircraft deliveries are labeled at 1,236 in 2023, while the open-order backlog is labeled at 15,703, making the backlog more than an order of magnitude larger than current-year output.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.