| All News |
| If you want to see all news from the last 100 days in order by date,
click here. |
|
| Search News |
| Enter any query and search the aviation news database |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
International
Aviation News |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Airbus Sees Slower Sales After Show Orders Rush
|
Plane orders worth more than USD$40 billion announced this week at the worldīs biggest air show may mark the start of a far slower end of year for Airbus, the plane makerīs chief salesman said.
"Thereīs definitely more softness in the second half than in the first," Airbus sales head John Leahy told reporters at the Farnborough Airshow near London.
Airbus clinched firm orders for 247 aircraft at the event this week, taking its 2008 net orders for the year to 730.
Leahy said the company was aiming at 850 for the full year.
While Chinese and Gulf-based airlines are busy buying planes for growth, high oil prices and slowing economies have hurt aircraft demand from Europe and the United States.
Leahy said companies that lease aircraft to airlines were still buying, too.
"I am getting a lot of interest from the leasing companies," he said. "I am not in discussions with anyone in the US about a big order. You have got to have consolidation first."
He said tough times for airlines could in fact increase their use of lessors, whose buying might prompt the plane maker to raise its 2008 orders target.
Big Gulf-based deals announced at the airshow included lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise firming up a previously announced deal for 100 Airbus planes worth USD$12.6 billion and a fresh USD$11 billion order from Abu Dhabiīs Etihad Airways.
Despite prospects for weakening aircraft demand, Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said there was no need to abandon plans to ramp up production of the A320 single-aisle aircraft family to 40 from 34 a month, though he plans to revisit the issue later this year.
The boss of that plane program, Tom Williams, said Airbus aimed to assemble 36 A320s a month in Europe and four in China beginning in 2011, though he stressed that final assembly only represented 5 percent of the value chain.
Airbus aimed to reach a maximum production rate of four aircraft a month for its delayed A380 superjumbo in 2-1/2 to 3 years, Williams said.
Negotiations to sell a British Airbus plant at Filton to auto parts maker GKN were advanced, Airbus CEO Enders said.
He was also confident of closing a deal to sell an Airbus plant in Germany at Laupheim to French defence electronics firm Thales.
The sales are part of a push by Airbus to combat costs from plane delivery delays, surging prices of metals and other raw materials and a weak dollar that gives US rival Boeing an advantage.
|
| |
| News material on the Site is copyright and belongs
to the Company or to its third party news provider, and all
rights are reserved. Any User who accesses such material may
do so only for its own personal use, and the use of such material
is at the sole risk of the User. Redistribution or other commercial
exploitation of such news material is expressly prohibited.
Where such news material is provided by a third party, each
User agrees to observe and be bound by the specific terms of
use applying to such news material. We do not represent or endorse
the accuracy or reliability of any of the info contained in
any news or external websites referred to in the news. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
