Airbus trails Boeing in orders for 2007 despite record sales

16 January 2008

Toulouse: Expectedly, Airbus said Wednesday that it had won record aircraft orders last year, but also, unsurprisingly, it lagged its US rival Boeing for the second successive year in a row.

The European aircraft maker, a subsidiary of EADS, the Franco-German aerospace and defence group, said Wednesday that it had won 1,341 net new orders, after cancellations and conversions by customers from one aircraft type to another. This marks a 70 per cent increase from the 790 units sold in 2006 and also well ahead of its previous record of 1,055 units sold in 2005.

Airbus orders for 2007 are valued at $157.1bn at list prices.

Boeing had earlier reported a rise in its net commercial jet orders for 2007 by 35 per cent, from 1,044 to 1,413.

Record orders for both Airbus and Boeing come on the back of surging global demand from airlines. However, after three years of unprecedented sales, industry analysts expect demand to contract sharply this year.

Both Airbus and Boeing have said that the demand for 2008 will continue to be more than the production capacity for the year.