Airbus's end-of-year activity has included securing orders for 40 A320neo-family aircraft from undisclosed customers.

The airframer has disclosed that it landed an order for 20 A321neos on 22 December.

Airbus also lists a 28 December order 20 A320neos.

It has not identified the customer behind either agreement.

Agreements for A320-family jets accounted for 828 gross aircraft orders in December, Airbus's backlog data shows.

This contrasted with relatively light activity in the long-haul sector, where gross orders increased by 13 aircraft – of which five were A330 tankers for the military.

Airbus outperformed rival Boeing in the single-aisle sector, with 1,054 orders across the A320 family against 745 for the Boeing 737.

But Boeing turned in a much stronger performance in the twin-engined long-haul market, taking a 75% share of aircraft orders – a total of 169 across its 767, 777 and 787 families compared with 57 for the A330 and A350.

Airbus chief operating officer for customers John Leahy, speaking during a briefing on the order activity, appeared unconcerned by Boeing's strength in the widebody sector.

"I think our position is pretty good," he says. "One year does not make a trend. Things go up and down."

Leahy points out that Airbus has achieved more net orders than Boeing in the widebody market in seven of the 10 years from 2008-17.

Source: Cirium Dashboard