But anticipated slowdown has taken its toll with orders well down on last year's Farnborough
Airbus has easily taken the honours in the traditional air show battle for orders supremacy, particularly as Boeing declined to play along.
The overall tally of 309 orders, worth some $17.3 billion, represents a 60% drop (in value terms) compared to the airliner manufacturing industry's performance a year ago at Farnborough, as it battens down the hatches for the expected economic slow down.
In list price value terms Airbus took more than two thirds of the total airliner orders announced at the show, although this included the confirmation of several A380 orders previously announced as commitments worth $3.4 billion.
The European manufacturer announced orders from five customers worth almost $14 billion for 155 aircraft. This included its biggest single order ever - a $8.7 billion deal from International Lease Finance for 110 aircraft.
Boeing declined to play ball with its European rival, claiming it has a policy not to hold orders over to announce at air shows. It underlined its position by announcing just one order -- a three aircraft deal for 777s from Japan Airlines, worth $525 million.
Regional activity centred on the 70-100 seaters, with Bombardier, Embraer and Fairchild Dornier all announcing deals in this sector. Significant awards included a 50 aircraft order for Bombardier CRJs from German lease firm Deutsche Structured Finance and the 100-aircraft commitment from TAM for ERJ-190s of which 25 were firm.
Airbus and Boeing's combined tally for the year stands at around 470 aircraft, and both companies are forecasting a drop for the whole 12 month period compared to last year's gross total of 1,130 units. This should see total orders reaching around 800 units by the end of December, shared roughly equally between the two rivals.
Source: Flight International
