By Sneha Shankar - Europe's Airbus Group (XETRA:AIRG) and the Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) both bagged orders worth billions of dollars in the first two days of the ongoing Farnborough International Airshow, which began Monday in the UK.
Airbus on Tuesday received a bulk order for 115 A320 aircraft worth nearly $10 billion at list prices from SMBC Aviation Capital, a Dublin-based leasing company, while BOC Aviation from Singapore placed an order for 43 A320 airplanes. Its American rival, Boeing, announced a deal with Air Lease Corporation, or ALC, for 26 aircraft worth $3.9 billion. On the first day of the industry event, Airbus signed deals reportedly worth nearly $21 billion, while Boeing bagged orders worth $7.7 billion.
With Tuesday’s deal, SMBC’s total orders for Airbus aircraft now stands at 206 planes while BOC has so far ordered a total of 255 Airbus aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing’s deal with ALC of Los Angeles consists of six orders for the extended range version of the 777-300 and a confirmation of its order for 20 737s. Both companies reportedly signed several deals with airline companies and lessors at the air show.
The deal with SMBC is a sign of the company's growing supplier base in Japan, John Leahy, chief operating officer of Airbus' customer division, said, in a statement Tuesday.
Airbus, which has led Boeing in terms of order size at the air show, has faced 225 order cancellations so far this year while Boeing has seen only 54 orders being cancelled. Airbus also came in for criticism Monday from Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, who said he was disappointed with the delays caused by Airbus in delivering new planes to buyers.
“I’m very angry because this is making an impact on our expansion plans,” Baker said, according to Bloomberg, referring to the airline's plans of deploying its first A380 in June, adding: “It is their problem because they are not keeping their costs under control.”
ALC, which put in an order for 60 A321neo aircraft, also signed a deal Monday with Airbus for a newer, upgraded version of the 20-year-old A330 aircraft. AerCap, an Amsterdam-based lessor, also said that it would buy 50 A321neos, worth approximately $5.14 billion at list prices. Boeing is expected to get another order from BOC Aviation, taking its total order list to $9.2 billion.