The Boeing Co. started the year with a surge in jet orders, but airline moves to cancel deals for the discontinued 717 have put a dent in the order book.
Boeing has not yet reported its final first-quarter orders tally. But according to information posted on its Web site this week, the company took firm orders for 63 new jets during the first three months of the year.
That’s an increase of about 43 percent over the first quarter of 2004, when Boeing booked orders for only 36 jets.
However, Boeing also reported a net cancellation of 18 orders during the quarter – 14 of them 717s. That leaves the company with a net of 45 orders for the quarter.
The cancelled 717s were all scheduled to go to Pembroke Group, the Irish jet-leasing firm, Boeing spokesman Tom Brabant said. However, Boeing and the company “mutually agreed there wasn’t a sufficient market for those aircraft,” so the deal was called off, he said.
Boeing announced in January that it planned to stop production of 717s after it finished building the planes airlines already had ordered. As of March 31, it had 15 717s left to build. Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines will take seven of them.
Boeing’s best customer during the quarter was GOL Airlines of Brazil, which placed orders for 13 737s. Icelandair ordered 10 737s and two 787s during the period.
Boeing also completed a previously announced 787 deal with First Choice Airways of the United Kingdom during the quarter. That pushes the total of firm orders for the Dreamliner to 64.
Airbus outsold Boeing during the quarter, reporting new orders for 123 jets. A single 60-jet order for single-aisle A320s from AirAsia accounted almost half that total.
Boeing’s new top salesman, Scott Carson, vowed this week his company would pass Airbus in sales this year.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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