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Farnborough: A $40 billion spree by Gulf states prevented aircraft orders from going into freefall at this week's Farnborough Airshow but left little for Airbus and Boeing to scrap over for the rest of the year.
Airbus, the planemaking unit of Europe aerospace group EADS, was still squeezing out a few orders on day four of a show that exposed a yawning divide between the industry's rich and poor as oil prices approach $150 a barrel.
By midday yesterday, Airbus and rival Boeing had posted 444 firm orders worth $62 billion. That exceeded the forecasts of many who had said they would struggle to reach half the 600 firm deals seen at a similar showcase in Paris in 2007.
The two planemakers came to Farnborough neck and neck with net 2008 orders of 487 planes for Airbus and 475 for Boeing, and are now close to their targets for the whole year.
Airbus has posted firm orders of 247 planes worth $38 billion so far this week, bringing net orders so far this year to 734 aircraft. Sales chief John Leahy upped his forecast for 2008 orders on Monday to 800 aircraft from 700.
The orders include 10 A350-800 mid-sized jets sold to Colombian airline investment firm Synergy Aerospace yesterday.
The European company sold 1,341 planes in 2007, which proved to be the climax of an unprecedented three-year industry bubble.
Boeing announced firm orders for 197 planes worth $23.6 billion this week, bringing its tally this year to 672 planes.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Scott Carson has predicted fewer than 1,000 orders in 2008 after 1,413 in 2007.
High oil prices raised fears of a slew of order deferrals and cancellations as airlines trim capacity or wrestle with bankruptcy. Economic and oil fears appear to have sharpened the normal cyclical decline expected after a prolonged upswing.
Some analysts say that could prompt the planemakers to slow down production which has risen to meet a record backlog, or encourage them to let the timetable for the next generation of single aisle planes which dominate their volumes quietly slip.
But while the mood at Farnborough was grim, the order slowdown has not yet turned into a rout.
"I don't understand all the gloom and doom, but I understand the fear of gloom and doom," said aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group in Washington DC.
"There is a market share grab by Middle Eastern airlines and probably lessors," Aboulafia said.
"The legacy carriers have been quiet at this show. And it is pretty clear the low-cost carriers need to be cautious; they have the most price-sensitive traffic and prices have to rise."
This week, both Ryanair and British Airways announced cuts in flights next winter to stem exposure to the rising cost of fuel.
Crucial yardstick
Orders at the world's largest aerospace event, held in Farnborough or Paris on alternate years, are used as a yardstick for the health of one of the world's most cyclical industries.
Getting to the bottom of air show orders can be tricky. Many deals "announced" in front of cameras already existed in order books as undisclosed buyers. It is a practice favoured by Boeing to allow it to report its own performance, without forcing customers to display their hand before they are ready.
In Airbus's case, many deals including a 100-plane order from DAE Capital had already seen the light as provisional ones. The European firm regularly announces orders more than once.
Orders which were both firm and new to investors reached 121 planes worth $22.2 billion at Airbus this week. Boeing's haul of firm and new orders was 65 planes worth $4.7 billion.
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