Commercial aviation is in a strange position: demand is growing, there are not enough aircraft, yet the industry still has no truly new mass-market airliner. In 2025, global passenger traffic measured in RPK grew by 5.3%, and in February 2026 it increased by another 6.1% year-on-year. At the same time, Airbus ended 2025 with a record backlog of 8,754 commercial aircraft, and the A320 family alone has a backlog of more than 7,000 aircraft. We can see that demand for aircraft is enormous, yet the biggest segment of global aviation seems in no hurry to enter a new era.
