Airbus fights back with A350, A380 deals

EUROPEAN planemaker Airbus boosted commitments for its planned A350 jet on Wednesday as it scrambles to catch up with Boeing’s mid-sized 787 and announced a new order for A380 superjumbos.

Aircraft leasing giant GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) said it planned to buy 10 of the A350 planes worth about $1.6bn at list prices, while India’s Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. agreed to buy five.

The Indian carrier also agreed to purchase five A380s, worth about $1.3bn at list prices, as well as five A330s in a combined 15-plane deal worth about $3bn. Airbus now has firm orders for 149 double-decker A380s.

The A350 orders would bring to 87 the number of commitments for the plane announced at the Paris Air Show, lifting the A350 project out of the doldrums after a false start that led to a redesign.

Including these orders, Airbus now has 117 commitments for the A350, though that includes 60 from Qatar Airways on which the Gulf airline says key points must still be negotiated.

Airbus has modified the initial design of the A350 to try to prevent Boeing running away with the market for mid-sized aircraft that fly long distances on flexible routes, rather than between huge regional hubs.

Boeing has pre-sold 266 of the 787 Dreamliners, which are due to enter service from 2008 compared with 2010 for the A350.

It has not so far announced 787 orders at Le Bourget, however.

Airbus had previously placed its bets for 21st century travel on the hub-to-hub model, designing its A380 to cope with fast-growing air traffic coupled with limited airport capacity and environmental restrictions on slots.

The 555-seat A380 has wrested dominance of the market for large planes over 400 seats away from Boeing, though Boeing may hit back with a stretch version of its venerable 747 jumbo jet.

But Airbus officials have acknowledged in Paris they lost business by leaving the mid-sized market to Boeing, and that an earlier version of the A350 — a revamp of its A330 twin-engine model — had been too timid a response to the 787 threat.

Airbus’s chief salesman, John Leahy, had told Reuters earlier on Wednesday he may announce a new order for the A380, of which the first flight testing model towers over Airbus’s temporary suite of offices at Le Bourget. It is due to perform for the public later this week.

Indian demand has been a highlight of the air show amid forecasts of strong air traffic growth in the populous nation.

Kingfisher Airlines, an Indian budget carrier backed by the country’s largest beer company, is the brainchild of flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose UB Group makes Kingfisher beer, India’s largest selling brand.

Choreographed announcements of jet orders are part of a battle of wits between aerospace giants at Le Bourget, where claims of supremacy by both Airbus and Boeing regularly fly back and forth across a temporary avenue of luxury pavilions.

Airbus is clearly delighted about a rebound in the fortunes of the A350 and has outsold Boeing by almost 50 percent on the basis of commitments announced at the show so far. It hopes this will divert attention from a threatened trade war with Boeing.

Boeing however came to Paris having already notched up successes for the 787 and continues to announce steady sales for its 777 transatlantic workhorse. And both companies agree Boeing will grab back first place in global orders from Airbus in 2005.

Boeing on Wednesday added firm orders for 18 737-800s, worth about $1.2 billion at list prices, from Spanish carrier Air Europa to its show order book. The airline also took out options for 12 more of the single-aisle jets.

Among a handful of smaller deals, Airbus said Singapore’s Tiger Airways had agreed to buy 8 Airbus A320 aircraft worth about $500 million at list prices.

The 8 planes will be added to Tiger Airways’ current fleet of 4 leased A320s, with the first scheduled for delivery in March 2006.

Egyptian low-cost carrier Air Cairo is also buying six A318 planes, the smallest plane in the Airbus fleet, to become its first operator in the Middle East, Airbus Chief Executive Noel Forgeard told reporters.


Past Headlines