Airbus Group SE left Boeing Co. trailing on the second day of the 2016 Farnborough International Air Show after landing a $12.6 billion jetliner deal from AirAsia Bhd.
The order may prove a knockout blow in the competition for contracts at the year's biggest aviation expo.
AirAsia, the Malaysian discount carrier, signed a firm agreement Tuesday to buy 100 A321neos in a deal that swells its already-record order tally for Airbus' single-aisle family to 575 aircraft, 170 of which are already in the fleet.
After an accord to sell 72 A320neos to Go Airlines India Pvt., the deal takes Airbus' Farnborough tally to 223 aircraft valued at $28.3 billion. That's more than double the 121 orders worth $13.7 billion at Boeing, excluding the signing of final terms on a 747 deal already announced.
Boeing had earlier taken a lead over Toulouse, France-based Airbus with a spate of morning accords involving carriers in China and tour operator TUI AG.
The U.S. company agreed to provide an unidentified Chinese client with 30 737 single-aisle jets it said would be a mix of the current model and the re-engined Max version, worth more than $3 billion at list prices. It also secured a deal to supply Kunming Airlines with 10 Max 7s valued at $902 million after saying Monday the jet would get more seats to help spur sales.
In Europe, TUI agreed to convert options on 10 Max 8s into firm orders worth $1.1 billion, and will also add another 787-9 Dreamliner to its fleet, valued at $265 million. Boeing also sealed terms on 20 747-8 freighters with Russia's Volga-Dnepr Group, though the deal isn't new and some of the planes have already been delivered.
Tuesday morning, before the announcement of the mammoth AirAsia order, Airbus revealed a pending deal with Berlin-based Germania for 25 A320neo narrow-bodies -- the main rival to the Max -- with a total list price $2.68 billion. In the early afternoon, it announced a four-plane accord for A321s from Iceland's Wow, followed by the $7.73 billion GoAir deal. The AirAsia haul is the event's biggest contract to date.
Economic growth is driving demand for new routes in Asia. The trend is prompting low-cost operators that have already amassed large order backlogs to add even more planes.
"The Asia Pacific is going to account for at least a third of all aircraft demand over the next 20 years" based on planemakers' forecasts, said Simon Elsegood, an analyst at CAPA Centre for Aviation in Sydney. "There's particularly strong demand for intra-regional connectivity in Southeast Asia and North Asia, and then there's very, very strong demand within China itself for domestic flights."
The bulk of deals at Farnborough and the Paris show with which it alternates come on the first two business days, though more announcements are possible today.
Boeing's orders on the expo's first day were also dominated by China, with Xiamen Airlines agreeing to take 30 Max 200s, a high-density version of the Max 8, with a value of $3.39 billion, and Donghai Airlines signing an outline deal for 25 Max 8s worth $2.75 billion and five 787-9s priced at $1.32 billion.
The leasing arm of Standard Chartered Plc also bought 10 current generation 737-800s valued at $960 million it said were destined for "northeast Asia."
Airbus' first day was marked by Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. signing a long-awaited deal for 12 A350-1000s valued at $4.4 billion, including four to be sourced from Air Lease Corp. Air Lease separately announced orders for three A350-900s and an A321, and Jetstar Pacific of Vietnam signed an outline accord for 10 current-generation A320s.
Airbus said Tuesday it sees lower production for its A380, the world's biggest passenger plane.
The company said it expects to deliver 12 of the planes per year starting in 2018, down from 27 in 2015.
Airbus has delivered 193 of the A380s, which can carry more than 500 passengers. But demand has been soft lately, and airlines including Air France-KLM indicated they don't plan to take all the A380s they have ordered.
The company said the plane will be needed to handle growing passenger traffic at congested airports. But it said that reducing production is a prudent step in view of current order trends.
Airbus said it reached break-even financially at 27 deliveries last year and hopes to cut production costs to lower its break-even point.
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Jasper, Julie Johnsson, Andrea Rothman, Nikita Mathur and Chris Reiter of Bloomberg News and by The Associated Press.
Business on 07/13/2016