Stronger finish than expected at Airbus helps clear inventories 2020 brought a challenge in assessing December deliveries as airlines may well not have rushed to accept them. Still, taking a more cautious approach than usual to assess which aircraft have been contractually delivered, we estimate Airbus delivered 562 in 2020 (December: 85 including 66 A320, 6 A220, 9 A350 and a solid 3 A380), in line with recent press comments pointing at c. 560 aircraft. This would be well above consensus''s 528, an upward risk we flagged following the strong November deliveries. Inventories thus fell to c. 65-70 aircraft at year-end (135 at end Q3). 737 MAX deliveries finally resume - at a good pace Boeing also saw a good level of deliveries on the 737 MAX with 24 delivered since 8 Dec, of which only three were built in 2020. While it is unclear if this pace of delivery from Boeing''s now c. 430 of inventory can be sustained, it is a solid performance in less than a month. Production remained slow with seemingly no first flights in the month. Q4 impacts: strong EBIT, FCF may be curbed by other WC effects at Airbus At Airbus, the higher deliveries, and good mix skewed towards A321neos, would suggest EUR0.3-0.5bn upside on consensus Commercial EBIT. At FCF level, higher deliveries should generate c. EUR1.1-1.4bn upside to consensus; however, Airbus may see some offsets such as more lenience in payment terms from customers, to avoid cannibalizing 2021 FCF. For engine OEMs, especially on narrowbodies, this may lead to a slight cash headwind, as concessions payments are collected by airlines on delivery. Dassault Aviation also enjoyed a solid year-end, with an expected 35 deliveries, 5 more than guided, though orders may prove a better indication of direction of travel. Europe once again facing increased restrictions while operational data hold up December saw the roll-out of vaccination campaigns, at the same time as a further tightening of restrictions in...