Aircraft

Despite the "absolute mess" that Airbus has been in recently, 2006 is already its second-best sales year ever and it has record backlog and output levels, says chief salesman John Leahy.

Describing 2006 as "the best of years, the worst of years", Leahy says that Airbus has taken 619 orders so far in 2006, compared with 1,111 for the whole of last year, which was its best ever.

"This surprised a lot of people in Toulouse," he says, describing Airbus as an "absolute mess" due to the setbacks it has suffered, including three chief executives in a year and "a third delay" to the A380 schedule.

"We'll deliver the first A380 in October next year, I trust," says Leahy. He adds that, in terms of deliveries, it is on track to deliver 425 aircraft. "And we have the highest backlog Airbus has ever had."

Leahy says that the airframer's current order market share against Boeing (in terms of units) is 43%, which puts Airbus in its target 40% to 60% band.

However, he concedes that he is "not there yet" in terms of value market share, which he estimates is currently around 35-37%.

The low value share is due to Airbus's sluggish widebody sales so far this year, and its efforts have been hindered by the fact that its A350 programme remains stalled. But Leahy is bullish about its prospects, saying he is "pleasantly surprised" by the number of customers "willing to wait" , and claims that the A350's presence "has slowed sales for our competitor".