Leads Boeing By Over 130 Orders For 2007

While Sunday belongs to Boeing, as it introduces its 787 Dreamliner... it appears that so far, the year belongs to Airbus.

The Wall Street Journal reports the European planemaker announced Friday it received 680 new airplane orders through June 30, a healthy 131 aircraft over Boeing's announced year-to-date totals. As ANN reported, Airbus received a significant boost from the recent Paris Air Show, where it racked up an impressive 748 orders and commitments from customers.

The announcement is a marked reversal of fortunes for Airbus compared to last year, when Boeing led Airbus through early July, 480 orders to 117 (at that point, the international air show in Farnborough, England was still two weeks off -- Ed.) Boeing went on to accumulate a record 1,044 orders for 2006, compared to 824 for Airbus.

Airbus also leads Boeing on the number of planes delivered to customers -- a significant tally, as that's when the manufacturer gets most of the money for the aircraft. Over the first six months of this year, Airbus delivered 231 aircraft, compared to 220 for Boeing.

If Airbus continues the pace it set for the first six months of the year (more accurately, in the past month,) 2007 could go down as the year Airbus reclaims the sales crown, which it relinquished to Boeing last year for the first time in five years.

Stay tuned... this is when the show gets good.

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