Boeing, Airbus take $58bn in airplane orders

Boeing and Airbus have announced more than $58bn in airliner orders.

Visitors watch a Boeing 737 Max land at the Farnborough Airshow, south west of London yesterday. Picture: AFP

Boeing and Airbus have announced more than $US43 billion ($58bn) in airliner orders, adding pressure on both to further boost plane production ­despite supply-chain bottlenecks that have hampered output this year.

Single-aisle planes, the backbone of global air travel, dominated the deals, which come as the biennial Farnborough Air Show begins outside London. Airbus and Boeing are building those planes at a record pace and both have announced they will increase output again next year.

Boeing’s biggest deal of the day came from Jet Airways, which was identified as the buyer of 75 737 Max 8 jetliners. The deal is valued at $US8.8bn before industry-standard discounts. Airbus announced an $US8.8bn deal from an undisclosed buyer for 80 A320neo narrowbodies.

Airbus, which announced commitments for about 200 A320neos on the first day of the aerospace extravaganza, is already in talks with suppliers to potentially lift output of those planes by another 25 per cent.

The European planemaker plans to produce 60 A320s a month next year, from about 52 today. Now Airbus has asked suppliers to gauge whether they can support the production of 75 each month sometime after 2020, said Guillaume Faury, the company’s commercial-planes boss. “The demand is there. We could sell more if we had the ­capacity,” he said.

Boeing also is sold out of its narrowbodies for several years. Brian Cheng, chairman of Goshawk Aviation, said the first of the 20 737 Max 8s his firm was ordering was due for delivery beginning in 2023. “We are definitely capable of taking aircrafts much earlier,” he said.

Ihssane Mounir, Boeing’s commercial sales and marketing chief, said the planemaker had not committed to a further monthly rate increase beyond the move to 57 single-aisle jets next year.

Supplier performance has been particularly tricky for Airbus. The planemaker is late this year on handing over some of its A320s to airline customers because of a lack of engines.

But Mr Faury has said Airbus will catch up and hit its target of building about 800 jetliners this year.

Some suppliers had signalled they can support the higher production levels, he said. The verdict for others remains out­standing.

Airbus expects to start detailed talks later this year with its two single-aisle engine makers, CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and Safran, and United Technologies’s Pratt & Whitney, about boosting output.

Building more planes also comes with risks. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, who has abandoned plane orders over delayed plans, warned that ramping up output could backfire. “There will be pressure on them on quality, and then the delays will set in,” he said.