EVERETT — The Boeing Co. won orders for 10 new jets last week amid concerns over how climbing jet fuel prices will affect aircraft sales.
Through May, Boeing has won 418 net orders for its commercial aircraft. That’s one order more than the jet maker had at the same point last year, when Boeing posted a record-breaking 1,413 orders.
The Chicago-based Boeing announced 10 new orders over the past week, all for 737s. Ireland’s Ryanair and Romania’s Blue Air both put in requests for three Next Generation 737s. An order for four 737s was attributed to an unidentified customer.
Rival airplane manufacturer Airbus had won 397 commercial orders through the end of April.
Earlier this week, the International Air Transport Association predicted the airline industry will lose roughly $2.3 billion. The organization, which represents 94 percent of scheduled international air traffic, had estimated in March that carriers would post a profit of $4.5 billion. At the time, IATA had assumed an average oil price of $86 per barrel. Oil closed Thursday at $127.79 a barrel.
While Boeing’s chief executive Jim McNerney acknowledged last month that fuel prices and U.S. carrier troubles concern Boeing, he emphasized the jet maker’s diverse backlog of commercial jet orders.
“This is one of the reasons we have driven our markets internationally,” McNerney said.
Sales of fuel-efficient jets, such as the 737 and the 787, continue to be strong as do sales of Airbus’ A320 and A350 aircraft.
Boeing’s single-aisle 737 remains its top seller with 301 net orders in the first five months of the year. The company’s fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner has grabbed 79 orders so far this year, despite additional delivery delays announced earlier.
The 777 has won 36 orders; the 747 has two orders. The 767 — the plane on which Boeing based its losing Air Force tanker bid — has not won an order since February 2007. Last month, Boeing’s McNerney told investors that there’s more demand for the 767 than meets the eye.
So far this year, only one major deferral of Boeing aircraft by AirTran has been announced. The low cost carrier delayed delivery of 18 737s by about four years.
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