Airbus order book shaved by cancellations from Dubai
Airbus SAS suffered 41 order cancellations so far this year, following Boeing Co. in losing deals after financial woes forced Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd. to cut its backlog with both manufacturers.
Airbus signed contracts for 286 planes through the end of July, benefiting from a surge in orders at the Farnborough Air Show in England. Cancellations have cut the tally to 245, less than Boeing's 255 planes for the seven months.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, a state-owned company set up in 2006 with the aim of becoming one of the world's biggest airplane lessors, said last month it would scale back earlier orders as the emirate battles the impact of the global credit crisis. DAE in July dropped orders for seven Airbus wide-body planes and 18 narrow-body jets, figures released by Airbus show.
Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath declined to comment on the cancellations. Aircraft Purchase Fleet, the financial arm of Italy's AirOne, canceled two planes in July, the order status in comparison to the previous month shows, bringing Airbus's total cancellations for the month to 27.
DAE had placed an order in 2007 for 70 Airbus A320 single- aisle planes and 30 A350 jets worth about $13 billion at list prices. DAE also ordered 70 Boeing 737s, 15 787 Dreamliner jets, 10 777-300ERs and five 747-8 freighters that year, valued at $13.7 billion.
Boeing yesterday declined to comment on cancellations of 26 jets that showed up in its weekly tally of orders. A contract for 15 Dreamliners was removed yesterday from the planemaker's online backlog listing for DAE.
For the year so far, Toulouse, France-based Airbus delivered 298 planes, compared with 263 for Boeing. Airbus is targeting about 500 plane deliveries this year, up from 498 last year. Boeing on July 28 said it expected to deliver as many as 465 planes this year.
Airbus in late July raised its order target for this year to more than 400 jets following an intake at the air show for 133 planes. Boeing also raised its internal target for orders, without specifying the figure.