Boeing Takes Low-Key Approach to Deals at Air Show
Boeing Co. turned its nose up Wednesday at the bid by rival European plane maker Airbus Industrie to make the Paris Air Show an orders battle.
Eclipsed by Airbus’ headline-grabbing orders announcements, Boeing left Japan Airlines to report in Tokyo that it had ordered three wide-body Boeing B-777-200ER aircraft worth $525 million as part of plans to replace its DC-10 fleet.
The order was Boeing’s first for large commercial airliners since the biannual event at Le Bourget, the world’s biggest air show, opened Saturday, but company officials here only issued a statement on the deal after media inquiries.
“We don’t make deals in one week. These deals take a lot of time,” said Seddik Belyamani, Boeing’s top commercial aircraft salesman.
Since last year’s Farnborough Air Show in Britain, Seattle-based Boeing has moved to a policy of weekly disclosure of new orders. It is not expected to announce major new business at Le Bourget.
Airbus, by contrast, has used the event to grab headlines in the battle of the books and announced orders for 155 planes from four customers, including for 10 of its new A-380 super-jumbos.
Those announcements took the Airbus orders for 2001 to 299 planes against 172 for Boeing.
Boeing edged out Airbus in the total number of orders won last year, the second-best on record for both builders, after trailing its European rival in 1999.
Airbus’ share of the market has been trending higher since at least the mid-1990s, and its top salesman said the company could grab the top spot in the contest between the Western world’s only two manufacturers of large passenger planes.
“Right now we’ve got essentially 50% of the market,” John Leahy, Airbus’ executive vice president for customer affairs, told Reuters Television. This could rise to an average of 55% to 60% in the future, he said.
Boeing annually delivers about $30 billion worth of commercial jets, versus about $20 billion for Airbus, a partnership of European aerospace company EADS and British defense contractor BAE Systems.
Belyamani said Boeing expects 400 orders this year, against the 350 to 400 expected by Airbus.
Boeing expects only marginal growth in its traditional commercial aircraft and defense markets. Because of this and as Airbus eats into its market share in civil jets, the company has begun looking to higher growth sectors to boost its revenue.
Its annual market outlook, released Wednesday, predicted a $1.7-trillion market for new commercial airliners in the next 20 years and a world aircraft fleet swelling to 33,500 planes from about 14,500 today to meet growth in demand for air travel.
