Boeing wins Paris order race
• US manufacturer receives almost double the number as rival Airbus at annual aviation show
Boeing beat rival Airbus in orders at the Paris Air Show this week as a new, stretched version of the US manufacturer’s 737 workhorse sparked a flurry of intense deal-making in 2017.
Boeing beat rival Airbus in orders at the Paris Air Show this week as a new, stretched version of the US manufacturer’s 737 workhorse sparked a flurry of intense dealmaking at the aviation industry’s largest gathering in 2017.
Boeing had won orders and commitments for 571 aircraft worth as much as $74.8bn, said head of commercial aircraft sales Ihssane Mounir. Airbus fell short with 326 airliners valued at less than $40bn, sales chief John Leahy said. He said that the two companies were about equal in terms of firm orders, which exclude more tentative agreements to buy.
“It’s been very exciting for us,” Mounir said. “I’ve been to many of these and this is probably one of our busiest” shows.
The deals amounted to more than double the $50bn posted at the 2016 show in Farnborough, England, which alternates with the Paris expo as the industry’s marquee event.
The unexpected surge propelled the purchase tally to the highest in at least eight years. Asian lessors and airlines were particularly active as they girded for a travel boom.
The order binge quieted concerns that demand is fading.
“Maybe people came to the show with muted expectations, but the order activity is positive on the backdrop of relatively strong air-traffic growth,” said Kelly Ortberg, CEO of aerospace supplier Rockwell Collins.
Pledges to buy the new single-aisle Max 10, which Boeing began marketing in Paris to combat Airbus’s hot-selling A321neo, amounted to 361 airliners, Mounir said.
Net new commitments for the model totalled 147 aircraft, with customers shifting 214 from earlier agreements for other Max versions.
The biggest disclosed buyer at the Paris expo was General Electric’s GE Capital Aviation Services, which ordered 100 Airbuses valued at $10.8bn and converted 20 Boeing production slots from earlier purchases to the Max 10, the biggest variant of the 737. On Thursday, Boeing said it had signed a sales agreement with an “unidentified major airline” for 125 Max 8s valued at $14bn.
The boost from the Max 10 should help Boeing’s order flow come close to matching deliveries this year, CEO Dennis Muilenburg said earlier at the show. The measure, known as book-to-bill, fell below one during 2015 and 2016 as sales slumped for the manufacturer amid falling oil prices.
One of the largest named airline customers at the show was India’s SpiceJet, which had struck a deal with Boeing for 40 of the newest Max model, cofounder Ajay Singh said. The carrier was joined in orders at Boeing by Chinese operator Okay Airways, Indonesia’s Lion Mentari Airlines, Japan Investment Adviser and BOC Aviation.
The leasing arm of China Development Bank signed deals to buy airliners from Airbus and Boeing and was mulling potential wide-body jet orders, said CEO Peter Chang.