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Airbus stretches sales lead over Boeing at Paris show
LE BOURGET- Airbus stretched its lead over Boeing in the race for fresh sales yesterday at the Paris Air Show,
- PUBLISHED: Fri 17 Jun 2005, 11:39 AM UPDATED: Thu 18 Jul 2024, 3:28 PM
- By:
- AFP
Thanks to Indian and Latin American contracts, and predicted it would win 'twice as many orders' as its US rival during the weeklong event.
By the end of the fourth day of the 46th International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport, Airbus had orders and commitments to buy for 271 planes, valued at 30.978 billion dollars (25.629 billion euros). That was about double the value of Boeingís deals for 146 planes at 15.197 billion dollars.
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The European aircraft maker said yesterday it had a letter of intent from Indigo, a future Indian low-fares airline, to buy 100 single-aisle A320s, valued at six billion dollars at listed prices.
The Indigo commitment came on the heels of Airbus's biggest order Wednesday, from another Indian carrier, Kingfisher Airlines. Kingfisher is buying five of the new A380 superjumbos, five A350s and five long-haul A330s, in a deal worth three billion dollars.
''We are still looking at China, but India is the next big story,'' Airbus sales chief John Leahy said yesterday, noting ''a dramatic expansion'' in the Indian market
Airbus also announced two other deals yesterday. Brazilian airline TAM ordered eight Airbus A350-900s, its future long-haul carrier, as well as 20 planes from the A320 group.
The deal, worth about 2.6 billion dollars according to Airbus, included options to purchase seven more A350s and 20 more A320s.
The Mexican airline ABC Aerolineas signed a letter of intent to purchase 10 Airbus A320 aircraft, worth 600 million dollars, with an option to acquire 10 more.
The European aircraft maker indicated it would have ''two possible announcements'' of orders on Friday, one for 40 single-aisle aircraft, ''still in negotiation,'' the other, non-specified, from a ''European company.''
Airbus has already met chief executive Noel Forgeardís A350 order book target of 110-120 orders at the Paris show, having gained a major boost from Qatar Airways, which signed up for 60 of the as-yet unlaunched midsize aircraft.
''There was a lot of scepticism in Seattle and Chicago but not in Toulouse,'' said Leahy, referring to Boeing's production and headquarters sites and the southwestern French city of Toulouse where Airbus is based.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, the parent of Airbus, has delayed a decision for an industrial launch of the A350 until late September.
Airbus said it expected 200 purchase commitments between now and the end of the year.
In total, Leahy said he expected Airbus would win ''twice as many orders'' than Boeing at the biennial show that ends Sunday.
In terms of value, the contest is now tipped toward the European company, whose orders are worth nearly 30 billion dollars.
Boeing, which sold late Wednesday 35 single-aisle 737-800s to Alaska Airlines for 2.3 billion dollars, yesterday had a total of 15.2 billion dollars in orders, of which 6.6 billion were firm, according to AFP calculations.
However, the majority of Airbus deals - 25.5 billion dollars' worth - are only intentions to buy, Boeing points out. The US giant is poised to retake the lead from Airbus in firm orders this year. Notably, the Airbus A350 cannot obtain firm orders before its industrial launch.
By contrast, the A350ís Boeing rival, the 787 Dreamliner launched in 2004, has been a great commercial success. The fuel-efficient, long-haul midsize plane already has won 266 orders, 128 of them firm, from airline companies seeking relief from high fuel prices.
Boeing also plans to consider in late July a project to make a bigger and better jumbo 747, to compete with Airbus's new super-jumbo A380. The US company is counting on these new aircraft to put it back on top of the civil aviation sector. It has pledged to outpace Airbus in deliveries by 2008.