Boeing has reported it has set a new annual record of 806 deliveries in 2018, surpassing its previous record of 763 deliveries in 2017.

The company delivered 69 Boeing 737 aircraft in December with Boeing Commercial Airplanes president & CEO Kevin McAllister commented: “In a dynamic year, our production discipline and our supplier partners helped us build and deliver more airplanes than ever before to satisfy the strong demand for air travel across the globe.”

The company grew its order book with 893 net orders, including 203 sales in December.

With a seven-year order backlog, Boeing increased production of the 737 in the middle of 2018 to 52 aircraft per month. Nearly half of the year’s 580 737 deliveries were from the more fuel-efficient and longer-range MAX family, including the first MAX 9 aircraft.

Boeing said it continued to build the 787 Dreamliner at the highest production rate for a twin-aisle aircraft to support demand, the programme ended the year with 145 deliveries.

Deliveries of various 777, 767 and 747-8 models rounded out the total of 806 aircraft for the year. 767 deliveries include the transfer of 10 767-2C aircraft to Boeing Defense, Space and Security.

In terms of orders, across its aircraft portfolio in 2018, Boeing achieved 893 net orders valued at $143.7 billion according to list prices. While growing the order backlog for most programmes, Boeing reported particular strength in the twin-aisle category with 218 widebody orders last year.

The 787 Dreamliner saw 109 orders last year, or around 1,400 since the programme launched, with Turkish Airlines becoming a new customer and American Airlines and United Airlines adding to their Dreamliner purchases with 47 and 13 additional jets respectively.

The 777 family saw 51 net orders in 2018. The 737 MAX reached a sales milestone in December, surpassing 5,000 net orders with 181 new sales during December. For the full year, the 737 program achieved 675 net orders, including sales to 13 new customers.

“In addition to the ongoing demand for the 737 MAX, we saw strong sales for every one of our twin-aisle airplanes,” commented Ihssane Mounir, senior vice-president of Commercial Sales & Marketing for The Boeing Company calling it a ‘ringing endorsement’ of their performance. He added: “More broadly, another year of healthy jet orders continues to support our long-term forecast for robust global demand that will see the commercial airplane fleet double in 20 years,” said Mounir.