Airbus sees strong rise in widebody sales but Boeing remains stronger

Airbus’s market share of the high value widebody market increased last year in order terms but the airframer still trails its rival Boeing in both categories.

Airbus has just published its detailed breakdown of the 2007 orders and deliveries, which shows that its 428 net orders for widebodies pushed its share of the overall widebody market up from a dismal 30% in 2006 to 43% in 2007.

The previous year’s poor performance (137 net orders) was a reflection of the status of the A350 programme, which spent most of 2006 effectively suspended as it underwent reinvention as the XWB.

The European airframer’s share of widebody deliveries declined from 51% in 2006 to 44%, as its overall output in the category fell from 95 to 86 units.

This reduction was caused by a 50% decline in A340 deliveries from 24 to 11, which was not offset by the slight rise in A330 deliveries combined with the hand-over of the first A380.

Airbus’s share of the total widebody order backlog (2,260 aircraft) remains fairly stable, but is in the shadow of its rival which dominates with a 60% share.

Roles are reversed in the narrowbody sector, where Airbus leads Boeing with a 55% share.

Several large orders signed in December were not included in Airbus’s 2007 total as the deposits were not received before the turn of the year, says chief operating officer customers, John Leahy. These include Grupo Marsans order for 65 aircraft and Dubai Aerospace Enterprise for 100.

Source: FlightGlobal.com