Airbus Confirms Drop In Air Show Orders

Airbus wrapped up the Paris air show with USD$6.4 billion of orders for 58 aircraft, marking as expected a steep fall from last year as airlines hold back from renewing fleets to stave off recession.

The world's largest planemaker also reported preliminary commitments -- yet to be placed in the order book -- for 69 planes worth USD$6.5 billion at list prices at the biennial show.

At last year's Farnborough Air Show -- which alternates with Paris -- Airbus notched up firm orders for 247 aircraft, and Airbus and Boeing between them booked 444 orders.

Boeing and Airbus are headed for their worst annual order tally in at least 15 years as struggling airlines cancel or defer almost as many planes as they are buying.

Last year, the pair took total net orders for 1,439 planes combined.

Purchases at the Paris Air Show were scarce but Qatar Airways issued a USD$2 billion order for single-aisle jets to repel low-cost competition and Malaysia's AirAsia X ordered 10 new-generation A350-900s worth USD$2.4 billion.

On Friday, the final pieces fell into place when THY Turkish Airlines announced plans to purchase 10 planes from Airbus and seven from Boeing as part of a fleet-expansion plan, aimed at making it a global airline.

The purchases are the first under the plan to buy up to 105 planes from the two aircraft makers.

Airbus said it had booked a provisional commitment for A330-200 wide-body jets plus five A330-300s for Turkish Airlines worth USD$1.4 billion, making 7 in total.

Airbus does not disclose options and these apparently account for the discrepancy with the airline's figure of 10.

Boeing says it does not highlight orders at the air show, preferring to announce them as they arise.

However it said this week MCAP had finalized an order for two single-aisle 737-800 aircraft worth USD$153 million.

With 7,000 orders in the Airbus and Boeing order books combined, analysts said new orders were less important than whether the planemakers would manage to hold single-aisle production rates at announced levels for the coming year.

The industry is also focused on the timing of any recovery in airline traffic, which Boeing sees happening around mid-2010, and this in turn could help engine makers with their after-market parts businesses.

"Orders should be ignored," said aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group. "If you want orders look back in the order book. The only headlines people want to see are increases in traffic."

Shares in EADS nonetheless rose 2.4 percent on Friday.

Analysts noted a chorus of comments from aerospace executives at the show that the economy was beginning to stabilize, though the timing if any upturn was hard to predict.