Fri, Oct 12, 2007
Neck-And-Neck With Boeing In 2007 Orders Race
Beware ye, all who may have already
written off European planemaker Airbus in the hotly-contested 2007
commercial airliner order race. While the world's attention has
turned this week to Boeing's announcement of a six-month delay in its
much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner program... Airbus has been quietly
selling planes, and securing future orders.
Spanish tourism and transportation company Grupo Marsans signed
a memorandum of understanding with Airbus Thursday to purchase 61
planes... including four A380 superjumbo airliners and 10
A350-900s, providing both programs with a needed shot-in-the-arm in
the sales department.
The balance of the orders include five A330-200s and 42 A320
Family aircraft (of which 12 A319s, 25 A320s and five A321s).
"This purchase is an important step for us at Grupo Marsans in
our development," said Gonzalo Pascual, President of Grupo Marsans.
"It demonstrates our commitment to enhancing our group's position
on the short and long haul networks by incorporating the most
efficient aircraft on the market today. Furthermore with the A380,
we will become the first A380 customer and operator in Spain and
South America."
The value of the order was not disclosed.
October has proven to be a lucrative month for the planemaker.
Earlier this week, Airbus also announced 80 new orders for its hot-selling A320
narrowbody airliner, from two carriers. That followed
the October 5 announcement US Airways had firmed up a 92-plane
order, which includes 22 A350 XWB airliners.
Those orders should also make the 2007 order race a lot
closer... and much more interesting. Through the end of this week,
Boeing lists 898 net orders. The most recent orders numbers
available for Airbus only run through the end of September... and
show 791 net orders for that planemaker.
Hmmm... doing some quick math... carry the two (and taking into
account the US Airways order was booked earlier this year)... and
hey, we have ourselves a race!
Again!
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