Paris Show Opens with Big Airbus and Boeing Deals

LE BOURGET, France (AP) -- Airbus racked up a series of big orders at the opening Monday of the world's biggest air show, stealing some early limelight from U.S. rival Boeing.

With the manufacturers' intense competition again expected to be a dominant theme of the weeklong show at Le Bourget, north of Paris, both looked to make a splash from the get-go, with billions of dollars worth of orders announced.

Airbus booked orders from US Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates, GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), Jazeera Airways and Nouvelair that totaled 278 planes, including its A350 and superjumbo A380 models.

Airbus sales chief John Leahy predicted Monday that the planemaker will land orders for more than 280 jetliners over the week. Airlines often reserve big announcements for the show to ensure maximum impact.

At the last Le Bourget show in 2005, Airbus announced orders worth US$33.5 billion (euro25.2 billion at today's rates), double Boeing's US$15 billion, based on list prices--which are usually discounted for the deals.

Leahy noted that Airbus racked up "announcements" for 280 aircraft--including memorandums of understanding and other agreements that were not firm orders--two years ago.

"I would expect to exceed that this year. By how much it will exceed, why don't we wait until Friday to see," he said.

US Airways Group was one of the first to announce an order Monday, snapping up 60 of Airbus' A320 single-aisle aircraft and 32 widebody aircraft, including 22 A350 XWBs and 10 A330s. It increased its previously announced order of 20 A350s by two to 22 A350 XWBs in both the 800 series and larger 900 series configuration.

The A320s will replace Boeing 737-300s and 737-400s, which will be eliminated from US Airways' fleet, the carrier said. It added that it expects to take delivery of the first A350-800 in 2014, becoming the North American launch customer for the fleet type.

In another major order for the Toulouse-based company, GECAS ordered 60 A320-family aircraft in a deal worth around $4.4 billion at list prices.

Qatar ordered 80 A350 XWBs, three A380s and three A320-family aircraft. The A350 XWB order was a confirmation of Qatar's' earlier commitments to buy the 80 jets. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said the order for the A350s is worth $16 billion.

Orders for two A380s, Airbus's flagship double-decker plane, are conversions of earlier options into firm orders, he said, and the airline is taking one additional aircraft, bringing its total order for A380s to five. The three firm orders together are worth about $750 million, he said. (This puts a price tag of $250 million on each A380, seemingly an indication of the discounts Airbus is giving customers on the A380: The list price of the aircraft is more than $300 million.)

Wiring and other technical problems are behind a costly two-year delay in delivery of the A380. The holdup is set to wipe $6.2 billion off the profit of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. over the next four years.

Emirates is by far the biggest single customer for the A380. It initially ordered 43 A380s and took another four in May. Emirates is believed to have obtained significantly improved financial terms for these aircraft and an additional batch of eight A380s that it ordered today in a deal estimated to be worth about $2.5 billion at list prices. The latest order brings to 55 the number of A380s ordered by the Dubai-based airline.

Jazeera Airways signed an order for 30 single-aisle A320 jets worth between $2.1 billion and $2.4 billion on list prices.

Another order for two A320s came from Nouvelair, a Tunisian charter airline based at Monastir that belongs to the Tunisian Travel Service group.

Emirates remained undecided about whether it will sign up for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner or its wide-bodied Airbus rival, the A350 WXB.

"We've got some talking to do to both Boeing and Airbus with regard to the commercial terms of the deal, but I think we're in a good position to make an aircraft decision in the next few months," said Emirates President Tim Clark.

Clark said the carrier would select only one of the aircraft, rather than buying some of each.

Airbus was forced last year to launch a costly redesign of the planned A350 after airlines scorned its earlier model--resulting in the extra-wide-body or XWB model--and is having to renegotiate existing orders.

Prior to Monday's orders, Airbus had only 13 firm orders for the mid-size, long-range plane, compared with orders for more than 600 of Chicago-based Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. This is the first commercial jet made primarily of light, sturdy, carbon-fiber composites instead of aluminum.

Scott Carson, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Monday that the Dreamliner was on track for test flights in August or September, and delivery to its first customers in May.

Carson also announced Monday that GE Commercial Aviation Services had ordered six of its 777 freighters, worth $1.42 billion at list prices. The order takes the number of 777s ordered by GECAS to 39, including 14 freighters.

In another deal for Boeing, Jakarta-based Lion Air ordered an additional 40 737-900ER planes. Valued at more than $3 billion at list prices, that brings Lion Air's combined orders for the 737-900ER to 100.

The Paris show comes amid revived fortunes for the commercial airline industry. After two years in the red, the industry will make a profit of just over $5 billion this year, despite rising fuel costs, says the International Air Transport Association, whose 250 members claim to represent 94 percent of international air traffic.

Away from the rivalry between Boeing and Airbus, Rolls-Royce PLC said Monday it had received the largest-ever firm engine order for its civil aerospace business from Qatar. The US$5.6 billion order is for Trent XWB engines to power Qatar's new fleet of 80 Airbus A350 XWB twinjets, with deliveries beginning in 2013.

Associated Press writers Angela Charlton at Le Bourget and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

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