Airbus, Boeing Orders In Negative Territory

Airbus sold two A380 superjumbos in February but received two more cancelations for single-aisle planes, leaving its net cancelations since the start of the year unchanged at 8 aircraft, the planemaker said on Thursday.

Both Airbus and rival Boeing have seen the size of their backlogs, swollen by record orders before the economic downturn, fall so far this year as neither manages to sell faster than airlines cancel, data showed on Thursday.

The superjumbo sales to existing A380 customer Korean Air, which had already been reported, bring the total number of gross orders booked by Airbus this year to six.

Gross orders exclude cancelations or conversions when airlines trade up or down to different kinds of aircraft model.

Airlines have canceled a total of 14 single-aisle A320 family planes in 2009, Airbus said in a monthly order tally to end-February.

Airbus is targeting 300 to 400 gross orders in 2009 but parent EADS said this week the goal was looking increasingly challenging as the crisis hits air travel demand.

Boeing announced no new orders or cancelations in a weekly update earlier on Thursday, leaving the number of net cancelations it has booked so far this year at 10.

The US planemaker has received cancelations for 32 of its 787 Dreamliner mid-sized twinjets, and orders for 22 planes, mainly Boeing 737 single-aisle jets that compete with the A320.