Airbus leads Boeing in slow race for orders
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Airbus sold three planes and took upgraded orders for five more in April, maintaining a lead over Boeing Co, which scrubbed from its order book more than two dozen 787 Dreamliners in the last week, according to a Reuters report.
Airbus, the European planemaker, said it had sold an unadjusted total of eight wide-body aircraft in April and none of the single-aisle A320 jets that make up the backbone of many airline fleets, in competition with the Boeing 737.
The eight aircraft sold include five A350 XWBs for India’s Kingfisher Airlines, but these were offset in the order book by the cancellation of five orders by the same airline for an earlier model of the A350 that never went into development.
Airbus also sold three A330s worth US$181 million each at list prices. These included one to International Lease Finance Corp, traditionally one of the world’s largest aircraft buyers which has been largely sidelined as parent AIG, the troubled US insurer, seeks a buyer for ILFC to help repay federal aid.
The April tally means that Airbus has so far this year sold a net total of 11 planes after cancellations for 19 aircraft. The planemaker, a subsidiary of European aerospace group EADS, leads a glacier-paced race for orders against Boeing, which said customers cancelled orders for 26 planes - including 25 Dreamliners – in the week ended 5 May but also took 18 new orders.
Comments are closed.