With Order, Boeing One-Up on Airbus

A day after European aircraft maker Airbus landed its first 10 orders for the wide-body A350 plane, its U.S. rival Boeing Co. delivered a rapid counterpunch by selling 30 7E7 Dreamliners, its new wide-body passenger jet.

Analysts said the $4-billion deal reached Wednesday between Boeing and Japan Airlines Corp., Asia’s largest carrier in terms of revenue, represents an important though modest victory for Boeing in its mounting transatlantic rivalry.

But refusing to cede even the slightest public relations edge, Airbus, owned by European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., announced later Wednesday that new Kuwaiti airline Jazeera Airways had ordered four Airbus A320s, narrow-body aircraft that compete with Boeing’s 737.

Still, Boeing rightfully laid claim to the deal du jour and investors seemed to agree. Shares of the Chicago-based company rose 49 cents Wednesday to $53.91 on the New York Stock Exchange, close to their 52-week high of $55.48.

“It matters a lot, if only to reverse the perception that Airbus regained an unbeatable initiative on the sales front” when it locked in a $2-billion order on Tuesday from Spain’s Air Europa for 10 A350s, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at Teal Group Corp., a Fairfax, Va.-based aerospace consultant.

The A350 has been marketed for only about two weeks.

Aboulafia said the order from JAL, which has the option to buy 20 more, “could break the logjam” at Boeing, whose only other major order for the 7E7 came in April when All Nippon Airways Co. of Japan, known as ANA, bought 50 of the planes in a deal worth about $6 billion. The two-aisle 7E7, which will seat 217 to 289 passengers, is scheduled to begin service in 2008.

A key factor behind Boeing’s dominance in Japan is that several of the country’s heavy machinery makers are helping to develop the 7E7.