Claims It Got More Commercial Aircraft Orders Than Boeing During Paris Air Show

Forget the bickering in the courts of the World Trade Organization. The battle for supremacy in the commercial skyways was fought hard at the 2005 Paris Air Show -- and Airbus says it beat Boeing hands-down.

It was a close thing going into the show, as Boeing, the one-time leader in worldwide commercial aircraft sales, predicts it will return to its dominant position by the end of the year.

Not so, says Airbus.

"We intend to outsell them this year," John Leahy, Airbus' chief commercial officer, told Bloomberg News at the Paris Air Show on Friday. "We'll outsell them in orders and deliveries next year."

That there is some mighty tall talk, stranger.

So far this year, European-based Airbus says it's booked 475 orders, while Boeing claims approximately 400.

Airbus has taken more orders than Boeing for five of the past six years and has out-delivered the US manufacturer over the past two years. Boeing predicts, however, that it will make a comeback this year. In April, Boeing executives promised they'd outsell their European rivals.

Before Paris, Boeing had firm orders for 255 aircraft -- 59 more than Airbus had in hand. So far this year, Boeing has received 128 orders for its new 787 Dreamliner. That compares to just 10 orders for Airbus's competitor, the A350.

But during the show, Airbus announced another 115 A350 orders, while Boeing announced no new sales of its Dreamliner.

Still, Boeing was able to sell 146 aircraft at Paris, totaling some $15.2 billion at retail.

"We're very happy with the show," Boeing spokesman Jean-Marc Fron told Bloomberg. "We feel very confident with what we have at the moment. We had no specific expectations for the Paris Air Show."

But as high-profile as the battle between the 787 and A350 is, the real money is in older, more established lines of aircraft. Bloomberg estimates about 63-percent of the orders for new aircraft at Paris involved either 737s or A320s.

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