Airbus is likely to announce new aircraft orders worth more than $20 billion or £10.2 billion at the current Paris Air Show this week. According to the reports Airbus is anticipated to sign agreement with Qatar Airways for 80 of the $200 million jets and with Aer Lingus, the Irish carrier, for six jets. Additional probable deals include US Airways and Aeroflot is likely to place orders for about 20 aircraft. US Airways is contemplating to order about 90 Airbus SAS aircraft valued at more than $10.7 billion to replace its existing aircrafts and add long-range jets, a person familiar with the knowledge of the sale revealed at the side lines of the Paris air show. However, the company has not confirmed yet whether it will stick with Airbus or switch to Boeing.
US Airways is expected to buy about 60 single-aisle Airbus A320 aircraft, eight wide-body A330s and 22 long-range A350 XWB jets, Bloomberg reported citing a person who requested anonymity at sidelines of the Paris air show. US Airways, the seventh largest US carrier, preferred the Airbus planes over Boeing Co.’s 737 and 787 Dreamliner models after months of negotiations. Deliveries of the A320s is expected to begin about 2010, the A330s in 2009 and the A350s in 2014. As a matter of fact, for US Airways, purchasing A350 XWBs is an amendment to an order for 20 A350s that it placed in November 2005. That contract came in exchange for a $250 million Airbus loan that helped finance the merger of US Airways and America West Holdings Corp.
Therefore, these orders are not exactly new and were already in pipeline. Qatar had earlier signed a letter of intent to buy the A350XWBs last month and first signaled its plan to purchase at least 60 jets at the Farnborough Air Show last year. However, these orders are of course good news for Rolls Royce, which is supplying the A350XWB’s engines. The Qatar deal alone is expected to the tune of about £1 billion and which will provide Rolls’s 2007 sales a much-needed thrust. Rolls Royce has received just 4 percent of new engine orders so far this year. 
During the last air show held in Paris in 2005 Airbus had introduced the original A350, however the design of the plane proved to be ostracized with airlines and uncompetitive when weighed against Boeing’s 787. The firm then decided to re-launch the model last year as the XWB (Extra Wide Body). Airbus is in the course of converting the 100 orders that it had received for the old A350 and most of this week’s announcements are likely to be exchanges.
On the other hand, Boeing has decided to maintain a low profile at the air show this year. Boeing officials have said that the company has nothing to prove this year, and any big splash at the air show would distract attention from its forthcoming party for the 787 Dreamliner. However, market analysts are of the view that Boeing will still be in advantageous position during the show as they expect a few announcements from the company for receiving new orders. The International Lease Financing Corporation is thought to be close to confirming up to 50 orders for the 787, and in addition Qatar Airlines is believed to confirm 30 orders for the 787.
