Neck-And-Neck With Boeing In 2007 Orders Race

Beware ye, all who may have already written off European planemaker Airbus in the hotly-contested 2007 commercial airliner order race. While the world's attention has turned this week to Boeing's announcement of a six-month delay in its much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner program... Airbus has been quietly selling planes, and securing future orders.

Spanish tourism and transportation company Grupo Marsans signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus Thursday to purchase 61 planes... including four A380 superjumbo airliners and 10 A350-900s, providing both programs with a needed shot-in-the-arm in the sales department.

The balance of the orders include five A330-200s and 42 A320 Family aircraft (of which 12 A319s, 25 A320s and five A321s).

"This purchase is an important step for us at Grupo Marsans in our development," said Gonzalo Pascual, President of Grupo Marsans. "It demonstrates our commitment to enhancing our group's position on the short and long haul networks by incorporating the most efficient aircraft on the market today. Furthermore with the A380, we will become the first A380 customer and operator in Spain and South America."

The value of the order was not disclosed.

October has proven to be a lucrative month for the planemaker. Earlier this week, Airbus also announced 80 new orders for its hot-selling A320 narrowbody airliner, from two carriers. That followed the October 5 announcement US Airways had firmed up a 92-plane order, which includes 22 A350 XWB airliners.

Those orders should also make the 2007 order race a lot closer... and much more interesting. Through the end of this week, Boeing lists 898 net orders. The most recent orders numbers available for Airbus only run through the end of September... and show 791 net orders for that planemaker.

Hmmm... doing some quick math... carry the two (and taking into account the US Airways order was booked earlier this year)... and hey, we have ourselves a race!

Again!

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.airbus.com