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Aviation glossary

Delivery

Also: aircraft delivery, handover, delivery flight

Manufacturing and maintenance

The handover of a new aircraft from its manufacturer to the customer, an airline or a lessor, after acceptance checks and final payment.

What it is

Before signing, the customer's technical team inspects the aircraft, reviews its paperwork and normally flies an acceptance flight. If all is in order, ownership passes, the bulk of the price is paid and the aircraft takes up the permanent registration of its operator's country. Until then it flies under a temporary test registration; Airbus aircraft tested in Toulouse, for instance, carry French registrations beginning F-W.

The delivery flight then takes it to the airline's base, with technical stops on the longest journeys. For manufacturers, annual deliveries are the usual yardstick of output, since that is when most of the money changes hands; orders, by contrast, show demand.

On Vuelopedia

In an aircraft record, the dated operator history begins, where known, with its delivery to the first operator.

Airbus

Related terms

Final assembly lineThe facility where the major sections of an aircraft, often built at other plants, are joined and its systems installed until it is ready to fly. RegistrationCombination of letters and numbers that identifies an aircraft with the state in which it is registered and must be painted on its exterior. Ferry flightA flight without passengers or paying cargo that moves an aircraft to where it is needed: another base, a maintenance shop, a new operator or storage. Order backlogThe aircraft firmly ordered from a manufacturer but not yet delivered; it shows how many years of production lie ahead. Launch customerFirst airline or operator to order a new aircraft model in sufficient numbers for the manufacturer to commit to launching the programme.
Whole glossary

Cite

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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Delivery. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery

MLA

“Delivery.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Delivery.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Delivery. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_delivery,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Delivery}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-16},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/delivery |title=Delivery |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}

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