Airbus And Boeing Combined Have Put About $3 Billion On The Books

The furious pace of announcement of deals for airliners we've sort of become used to at major airshows like Singapore have just not happened this year at that event.

The Associated Press reports that Airbus has announced one order for a half-dozen A350-900s for Philippine Airlines valued at $1.8 billion. Boeing, on the other hand, has put a dozen 737s on the order books with Okay Airways valued at $1.3 billion.

Both planemakers say that they have confidence that travel in Asia will continue to be strong, and Boeing's recent forecast said that airlines in the Southeast Asia will have a demand for 3,750 new airplanes worth $55 billion over the next 20 years. Airbus is more bullish, with a forecast of demand for nearly 13,000 new airplanes in the broader Asia-Pacific region over that same period valued at $2 trillion.

But with the price of oil in a major slump, analysts say that airlines may put off buying more efficient airplanes for a while, which will mean fewer orders for both planemakers.

And both companies say that even if new orders are not pouring in, they have also not seen any deferrals of orders from Southeast Asian airlines.

(Images from file)

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