Airbus vs Boeing in 2005
Airbus outsold Boeing in 2005 with 1,055 net orders, it said on Tuesday, capping a record year for both marked by fierce price competition and strong demand from Asian and budget airlines.
Airbus almost tripled the 366 net orders it had captured in 2004 and beat Boeing’s tally of 1,002, despite many analysts’ expectations that the European planemaker risked losing its lead for the first time since 2000.
At it’s annual news conference Airbus said it also led Boeing in deliveries for a third consecutive year, with 378 planes leaving its assembly lines compared with 320 in 2004. Boeing had 290 deliveries after a strike trimmed higher expectations.
Airbus Chief Executive Gustav Humbert told reporters the return on sales came in at a “ballpark” level of 10 percent, compared with around 9 percent in 2004.
“We saw very aggressive pricing from Boeing in 2005 but you can see we could match it and improve profitability,” Humbert said. “There was a big pressure on prices in 2005.”
Airbus claimed victory over Boeing in orders, deliveries and backlog, with a 51 percent share of net orders for jets able to seat at least 100 passengers and 55 percent of the order book.
However, Airbus figures showed that its orders were mainly driven by sales of cheaper, single-aisle models to budget airlines, while it lost several deals for larger jets to Boeing.
Boeing, which had forecast that it would exceed Airbus in orders, said it would not be drawn into a “numbers game.”
“We had a tremendous year in 2005,” said Charlie Miller, a Boeing spokesman in London. “We’re very happy with where we are, and where we’re headed. We wouldn’t want to switch places with anyone.”
Soaring oil prices helped both companies because they prodded airlines to switch to more fuel-efficient planes. The industry was also buoyed by hundreds of orders from China and India. Airbus estimated the total value of the orders for both companies at US$201 billion.
Graham Muldoon
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