China Development Bank Places Mondo Order with Boeing Rival

China Development Bank Financial Leasing has announced plans to order an eye-popping 80 planes from Airbus, adding a whole fleet of A320neo aircraft to their collections in 2030 and beyond.

The purchase will bolster the lessor's collection with a next-gen narrowbody airliner that's grown to embody the stable, consistent choice in a market more hit-and-miss than once expected. While Boeing has found itself mired in one embarrassing faceplant after the other, Airbus has quietly kept up its modest tempo and capitalized on consumer doubt. The result is deals like this, where billions of dollars change hands and the aviation ecosystem of China is further swung in the Airbus direction.

Of course, onlookers in the financial sector haven't been all that thrilled with Airbus, either, though not quite in the way that Boeing has drawn their ire. The European manufacturer has been having a rough time ensuring a consistent, reliable supply chain for the raw parts it lives off of, thanks to the wacky worldwide economy and Russian sanctions. Recently, investors winced at Airbus' most recent delivery announcements, which saw the reduction of targets across the board. Airbus had blamed the drop in delivered aircraft on suppliers for cabin furnishings, small parts, and engines, revising their yearly delivery goal down to 770 planes in all. So far, the manufacturer has only cleared out 450 aircraft, so there's still quite a way to go.

All that being said, they're in a better spot than Boeing, in any case. Their competitor remains locked in a series of one embarrassing lookie-loo article after another. One recent piece from a Seattle area publication cited rumors that the company, fearing impending labor actions, had been going off the beaten path on 777 manufacturing, breaking its usual flow of production-line procedure in the hopes of doing as much work as it can before a strike. How much of that report was journalistic hyperbole hasn't quite been clear, but reports from FAA inspectors don't really paint a picture of the world's most stringent, rigidly attentive production line, either.

In any case, Until Boeing can get back up and dust itself off, Airbus may continue to capitalize on these opportunities as they come.

FMI: www.airbus.com