Boeing in driving seat as airliner market rebounds

Manufacturer bucks recent trend by opening big lead over Airbus in half-year sales

The airliner market bounced back to full health during the first half of 2005, with Airbus and Boeing landing over 680 firm orders, net of cancellations. The US manufacturer has reversed its recent performance and is firmly in the driving seat, with over 60% of the sales.

The 685-order total represents almost a threefold increase on the same period last year (178 net orders), and is the highest six month tally since the start of the decade. The 2005 first-half total is higher than each of the full-year net sales in the 2001-4 period – the highest of which was the 638 net orders last year.

As the table shows, Boeing’s success this year has been largely driven by sales of the 737, which has racked up 321 orders. These include 75 aircraft for Ryanair and 35 for Alaska Airlines. Boeing has also benefited from the arrival of the 787, securing 87 orders for the new twinjet during the first half. However, Boeing suffered 24 cancellations, largely tied to the decision to end 717 production.

Airbus trails Boeing significantly in sales terms for the first time in several years. It still had a healthy first half, more than doubling its half-year orders compared with the same period last year. Airbus is confident that it will close the gap with its rival by the end of the year, as it made a string of announcements at the Paris air show last month that will be firmed up in the coming months, including the first orders for its 787 rival, the A350.

Airliner shipments have risen by 10% since the same period last year, with Airbus having slightly extended its delivery advantage from 52% market share to 55%. Narrowbodies make up the bulk of deliveries, with Airbus shipping 141 A320 family aircraft and Boeing 121 aircraft (six 717s, 113 737s and the last two 757s).

The large disparity between sales and deliveries means that the firm backlog has increased by 13% since the end of 2004 to 2,938 units, of which Airbus holds 54% market share.

Notes

Changes: negative = cancellation; positive = an order has been converted from one model to another, but no “new” order has taken place

*At 30 June 2005

MAX KINGSLEY-JONES/LONDON

Source: Flight International