Airbus beats Boeing with record order number for fifth year in a row

Airbus beats Boeing with record order number for fifth year in a row

	Published : Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:25 By : Cedric Benson Print this Story

PARIS: European planemaker Airbus said it has booked record firm orders exceeding 1,000 passenger planes in 2005, taking 51 per cent of the total market and outclassing rival Boeing Company for the fifth consecutive year.

The company tripled its 2004 orders for 366 planes to bag orders for 1,055 planes to beat Boeing with a tally of 1,022. The company had 678 orders at the end of November, trailing Boeing at 827.

At the annual news conference, Airbus said it also beat Boeing in deliveries for a third consecutive year. As many as 378 planes left its plant compared with 320 in 2004. Boeing had completed only 290 deliveries.

Airbus' revenues rose 10 per cent to 22.3 billion euros in 2005, up from 20.2 billion euros in 2004. Operating margin rose to more than 10 per cent from 9.5 per cent. However, its order backlog rose to 2,177 aircraft worth $220.3 billion from 1,500 at the end of 2004.

Chief Executive Gustav Humbert said the company saw a very aggressive pricing from Boeing in 2005 but "you can see we could match it and improve profitability. There was a big pressure on prices in 2005."

Industry analysts were quick to point out that Airbus' figures constituted mostly of sales of cheaper single-aisle models to budget airlines and that it had lost several deals for larger jets to Boeing. Boeing had a record year for its twin-engined long-haul 777 and beat Airbus' planned A350 with strong sales of its new 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus said it has 87 firm orders and 85 commitments for A350s, but Boeing has said earlier in January that it had sold 235 787s in 2005.

Humbert says he would like to catch up with Boeing in the long-haul and wide-bodied aircraft in two years. "We have to take the next two years to really come up to the same 50-50 level of orders of long-range and wide-bodied aircraft."

He said the company's orders for 1,111 planes (before cancellations) were worth $95.9 billion and estimated that Boeing had taken 55 per cent of the total market by value.

The company would target 400 deliveries in 2006 and an increase in production of single-aisle jets from 28.5 a month now to 30 a month in 2006 and 32 a month in 2007, Humbert said. It is now producing eight large, wide-bodied jets in a month.

The company said it is on target to deliver its first A380 super jumbo aircraft to Singapore Airlines before the end of 2006, with Qantas and Emirates taking delivery in spring 2007.

Airbus is 80-percent owned by aerospace group EADS with the rest by BAE Systems.

Analysts say both the two aircraft makers have benefitted from the surging air travel market. Air passenger numbers have gone up 7.9 per cent in the first 10 months of 2005, according to IATA. Asian and Middle East orders had given significant boost to their respective volumes.