Airbus beats Boeing in 2010 orders

Airbus A320neo as seen on airlinesanddestinations.com

Rival companies in the aviation industry Airbus and Boeing have been battling for years for domination on the commercial aviation world stage. With 200 last minute orders at the end of 2010, Airbus pushed ahead of Boeing in the number of aircraft orders. With a total of 644 orders and $84 billion. This latest installment of orders made up Airbus' 10,000th order in their 40 year history. 60 of the orders going to Virgin America because of the introduction the new A320neo which is designed to increase fuel efficiency by 15% and therefore decrease costs. This would triple virgin America's fleet of A320s to 111 by 2019. Boeing came in with 625 orders for the year.


This was a huge shock for the European company and comes after a drop in the aviation market, and it has now bounced back. American executive of Airbus John Leahy said that it was due to the increasing amount of low-cost carriers in Asia and emerging markets.

Virgin America A320 The Guardian

In terms of deliveries last year's figures show Airbus ahead again with 574 despite cancellations of Boeing's 530 deliveries. Another main reason of why Boeing is falling behind in the order race is that of the 787 Dreamliner which 
has been delayed again until the third quarter of the year.
However China is set to buy 200 Boeing aircraft at a value of $19 billion in a new deal which in total comes to $45 billion for the US according to a Washington official.


Airbus is set to employ 3,000 people to work on projects such as the A350 which is set to rival the Dreamliner and other future projects.
Boeing has so far sold 20,663 aircraft since they started in January 1958. but for eight years Airbus has sold more aircraft than Boeing. Both companies have more than doubled their order intake as the industry recovers from recession.


Sources: BBC news
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