EVERETT — Both the Boeing Co. and Airbus will set company and industry sales records in 2007, with Airbus banking more than 1,200 commercial jet orders in 11 months.
Toulouse, France-based Airbus has won 1,204 orders through Nov. 30, according to the company. The updated total pushes Airbus past its previous annual record, in 2005, of 1,111 gross orders. The European company also leads Boeing, which listed 1,136 orders at the end of November.
Airbus got a big boost last month from carriers at the Dubai Air Show. The company won 163 orders during the trade show and nabbed another 20 orders over the course of the month. An Airbus official told a German newspaper on Monday that he expects the company to top 1,300 commercial orders by the end of the year.
In mid-November, Chicago-based Boeing broke its previous sales record of 1,044 net orders, set last year. The company’s head of Commercial Airplanes, Scott Carson, told a French newspaper last week that he expects Airbus to beat Boeing in orders this year.
In 2006, Boeing reclaimed the orders lead over Airbus for the first time since 2000. Airbus stumbled last year, suffering additional delays to its A380 superjumbo jet program, setbacks with its A350 and scandal over executives’ insider trading activities.
But Airbus bounced back in 2007, delivering its A380 according to its revised schedule. The jet maker seems to have found the right design for its frequently revised A350 — a fuel-efficient, mostly composite jet aimed to compete mostly with Boeing’s 777. Through November, Airbus had landed 286 requests for its A350 Extra Wide Body aircraft.
In October, it was Boeing’s turn to delay a jet program — its mostly carbon fiber composite 787 Dreamliner. The company pushed back the first delivery of the 787 by six months, noting final assembly troubles and a worldwide shortage of fasteners as reasons for the setback.
Over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune reported that a tooling supplier, Advanced Integration Technology, lies at the heart of Boeing’s 787 delays. The Texas-based company, which has a 5,000-square-foot facility in Bothell, serves as a 787 project integrator for Vought Aircraft Industries, which builds Dreamliner fuselage sections. Vought has acknowledged earlier troubles, though it has not cited AIT as a cause.
Boeing’s Carson, along with new 787 chief Pat Shanahan, will provide an update on the Dreamliner this morning. Analysts expect Boeing to say the 787 is on schedule, though many are skeptical of the company’s ability to deliver 109 Dreamliner jets by the end of 2009. That’s just three short of its original schedule.
The fast-selling Dreamliner continues to sell well despite its delay. With 314 orders through Dec. 4, the 787 has picked up nearly 800 orders since its launch. Boeing intends to fly the first 787 by the end of March.
Also on Monday, Boeing announced that leasing company Babcock and Brown Aircraft Management had ordered 20 single aisle 737s. The order, valued at $1.5 billion at list prices, was attributed previously to an undisclosed customer on Boeing’s orders and deliveries Web site.
Boeing’s stock declined 52 cents Monday to close at $92.64. That’s down more than $15 from its 52-week high, recorded weeks after the company rolled its 787 Dreamliner out of the Everett factory in July.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
