Airbus took almost another 150 orders in November, aided by a strong performance during the Dubai air show, taking its gross sales to the year to more than 1,500 aircraft.

Although Airbus had been claiming 1,268 firm orders for the re-engined A320neo during the show, it has revised this figure down to 1,196 because Republic Airways' order for 80 has yet to be included in the backlog.

Transaero's recent order for eight A320neos does, however, feature in the latest Airbus figures, to 30 November, as do the orders for 50 and 30 respectively from lessors ALAFCO and Aviation Capital Group.

Qatar Airways, which will be the first to receive all three variants of the re-engined twinjet, will be taking six A319neo, 30 A320neo and 14 A321neo aircraft.

The airframer delivered 59 aircraft during the month, taking the overall figure to 477 by 30 November and exceeding 2010's figure of 461 for the same 11-month period.

Kingfisher Airlines has cancelled the two A340-500s it had on order, following termination of the A340 programme, bringing the total number of A340s sold to 377.

Orders for six A330s, from Hawaiian Airlines and BOC Aviation, plus Qatar's order for five A380s round off the twin-aisle sales for the month. Airbus's gross sales for the year reached 1,521 with a net figure of 1,378.

Airbus delivered three A380s - to Korean Air, Emirates and Qantas - as well as 45 A320-family jets and 11 A330s, among them a freighter to Malaysia's MASkargo.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news