Mike Martin
Airbus Industrie and Boeing unveiled $2.9 billion worth of orders at the show yesterday, taking the tally of aircraft orders for the whole show to a world record $25 billion plus.
It concluded a thrilling week for connoisseurs of the big deal. Most stunning of all is the fact that the company to log the biggest total of orders was... Embraer, with $7 billion.
The growing importance of regional and business aircraft was underscored as Bombardier reported yesterday that combined sales for the week are close to $4 billion "so far", and Raytheon reached the $2 billion mark with a record single business aircraft order.
Yesterday Airbus announced sales worth $1.44 billion for 18 A319s and 12 A320s to Northwest Airlines.
Northwest's commitment to the Airbus A320 family now stands at 150, with some 70 already delivered.
At the Boeing chalet, there was equally good news, with $1.41 billion worth of orders for 25 aircraft from five different customers. The deals are: six 737-700s for Southwest Airlines; four 737-700s and four 737-800s for TAROM Romanian Air Transport; six 737-800s, one 757-200 and two 767-300ERs for Delta Air Lines; one 767-300ER for Lauda Air, and one 737-800 for Hapag-Lloyd.
Source: Flight Daily News