In January, John Leahy, Airbus’s chief salesman, gave assurances that his company’s newly launched (re-launched?) A350 Extra Wide Body jet would do well in 2007.
“I’ll predict we’ll have about 200 orders for the A350,” he said.
Leahy said he expects to pick up about 100 new orders for the A350 XWB and re-confirm the 102 orders placed for a previous version of the plane.
Just a month later, Airbus already has met its goal — if you count non-binding commitments.
On Tuesday, Airbus’s Simon Pickup, director of business operations, said that the company has a total of 224 orders and commitments from 17 customers.
The revised A350 XWB incorporates more composites than its original version, borrowing a page from Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The A350 XWB competes with members of Boeing’s 787 and 777 families and eventually will replace Airbus’s A340-600 jet, Pickup said.
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