AirInsight founder Addison Schonland recently stated that he doesn't expect Boeing and Airbus to go ahead with their planned production increases because the order backlog has already peaked. Furthermore, he thinks that low fuel prices will encourage airlines to defer more orders. WE HAVEN'T SEEN THIS BEFORE During many previous industry cycles, declining order activity was followed relatively quickly by production cuts. However, aircraft manufacturers rarely had more than three or four years' worth of production in their backlogs until very recently. Furthermore, Boeing and Airbus have more diverse customer bases today than they did even a decade ago. Aircraft order backlogs are at unprecedented levels right now. Image source: Airbus. In short, the backlogs for the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 are truly unprecedented in terms of size.