Airbus said on Tuesday it expects at least 290 plane orders from the Dubai Air Show, raking in some $85 billion in announcements this week. Airbus S.A.S. is the civil aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS N.V. (European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company), a pan-European aerospace concern. Based at Toulouse, France with significant operations in other European states, Airbus produces around half of the world’s jet airliners, with most of the rest built by rival Boeing Commercial Airplanes, though the precise share varies every year.
Both Airbus and Boeing companies expect a record year, but Airbus says its orders at Dubai have helped push it ahead of Boeing. On Tuesday, Airbus added a $2 billion order with Yemen’s Yemenia for 10 A350 XWB planes and one for 8 single-aisle A320s from Pakistan’s Airblue worth about $520 million.
“We’re having a record year, Boeing is having a record year.It looks like quite the record show. It’s 290 orders, over half of which are firm. The others will be firm within 30 days,” said Airbus sales boss John Leahy.
The show, which ends on Thursday, has already dwarfed the total of $21 billion in new business announced when last held in 2005 and has put Dubai among the world’s biggest aerospace events alongside shows in Paris and in Farnborough, England. Sales figures are in list prices which conceal discounts that are an industry norm, but the sheer number of aircraft involved for both companies indicates 2007 will be their busiest year ever.
Airbus said the intake at Dubai had boosted it above Boeing this week in their battle for annual orders, a race Boeing won in 2006 for the first time in six years. At the end of September, Boeing was leading 903 to 854. High crude oil prices are helping sales of new more fuel efficient models such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
