Singapore Show Is Treating Airbus VERY Well

It is no secret Airbus expected the 2006 Asian Aerospace show to be a good one, and so far that's proven to be the case. Perhaps just as important to the European consortium, however, is the relative quiet over at the Boeing booth.

Airbus added to its sales total Thursday, announcing orders totaling 50 aircraft from two budget carriers, Indonesia's Adam Air and Indian LCC GoAir. So far, Airbus has collected as much as $6 billion in orders from three Asian carriers; Boeing, a comparatively paltry $1.4 billion from a SpiceJet 737 order the company announced last week.

In fact, Boeing's only news Thursday was the signing of pacts with two regional service centers -- Messier Services and Goodrich -- to repair and overhaul Boeing (and former McDonnell-Douglas) aircraft. Important, yes... but not as flashy as ringing cash registers.

Besides, Airbus got in on the regional supplier action, too -- announcing a $1 billion deal with state-run Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. to develop components for upcoming the A350 and current A321 aircraft.

Boeing isn't out of the game quite yet -- as the show runs through Sunday -- but no major order announcements are expected before then.

Despite the looming presence of the A380 on display at the show, the star in Singapore has been the superjumbo's little brother -- the A320. All orders Airbus has received to date have been for aircraft within the A320 family (which includes the A318, A319 and A321)... and most of them for A320s themselves.

The orders "highlight the outstanding popularity that the A320 family has enjoyed with established and startup low-cost carriers, including in the Asia-Pacific region," said an official statement by Airbus.

Which is another way of saying... sayonara, Boeing. At least in Singapore.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.boeing.com, www.adamair.com, www.goair.in