Big-Ticket Orders at Paris Air Show

Analysts attributed the higher dollar figures mainly to airlines’ renewed interest in the next generation of bigger, and more expensive, wide-body jets. Driving that trend are expectations for improvement in the global economy, along with carriers’ need to replace aging fleets of fuel-guzzling long-distance jets.

But analysts also cautioned that coming years are unlikely to see a similar boom in jet purchases.

One reason is that a frenetic buying spree over the past three years has left Airbus and Boeing with burgeoning order books — and ever-longer waiting times for airlines to receive their new planes. Most of the airlines and leasing companies that ordered new Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 jets at the Paris Air Show this week said they did not expect to begin receiving them for four to five years.

The volume of orders “has to come down, partly because of the constraint of supply,” said Nick Cunningham, an aerospace analyst at Agency Partners in London. “If you want to have an A350 or 787, you are going to wait a long time.”

Another constraint, he said, is that airlines do not want to see too many of those big jets, with their hundreds of seats, competing with one another.

“If you have too much capacity going in too quickly, it drives down fares,” Mr. Cunningham said.

Airbus announced signed orders and purchase commitments at the Paris show for 466 planes valued at $69 billion at list prices. Boeing said its tally of 442 planes was worth more than $66 billion. Precise figures are hard to come by because airline customers rarely pay full list price for jets and large orders typically come at steep discounts.

At last year’s global aerospace bazaar, held in Farnborough, England, Airbus and Boeing together had $54 billion in new jet orders and commitments. Most of those deals were for the Airbus A320neo, a version of the popular A320 single-aisle plane with more fuel-efficient engines, and Boeing’s competing single-aisle plane, the 737 Max, which also uses the next generation of engines.

Both manufacturers secured several hundred orders for single-aisle planes again this year. But it was in the wide-body segment that the intensifying competition was on full display at Le Bourget airport, near Paris.

Boeing announced dozens of new orders for its 787 Dreamliner, despite a three-month grounding this year because of problems with its lightweight but volatile lithium-ion batteries. Those deals included commitments for more than 100 stretched versions of the plane that Boeing said it would start delivering in 2018.

Airbus, meanwhile, made the most of the momentum it gained last week for its rival A350 after its inaugural flight; it is due to enter service in late 2014. The European plane maker managed to secure 69 new orders for the A350 this week, bringing its total backlog to 362.

The A350 made its second test flight this week from the company’s headquarters in Toulouse, about a 90-minute flight south of the French capital. Fabrice Brégier, the Airbus chief executive, confirmed that a third flight would pass over Le Bourget on Friday, when the exhibition opens to the public.

At that point, the air show, which ends Sunday, will be mainly an opportunity for people to ogle airplanes on the ground and in flyover exhibitions.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/business/global/big-ticket-orders-at-paris-air-show.html?partner=rss&emc=rss