Airbus Steals Paris Airshow with $26.1B in Orders

The Paris Airshow is being dubbed by some as the Airbus Airshow as the European planemaker continued to scoop up record order numbers for its popular A320 family of aircraft. Yesterday, it also announced a multi-billion-dollar global winglet retrofit for the more than 300 current operators of the single-aisle planes.

With orders for 25 A320s (15 A320 and 10 A320neo planes) from Garuda and another 40 A320neos from US-based JetBlue, the Toulouse-based planemaker has chalked up some US$26.1 billion worth of orders for 263 A320 planes.

Garuda is deploying the new planes to its newly-established low-cost airline, CitiLink. Meanwhile, lessor CIT Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 50 A320neo aircraft.

And all this just into the second day of the world's biggest airshow at Le Bourget, Paris. On the first day, it had almost 200 orders from the likes of Scandinavia's SAS, Virgin American, IndiGo, Tam, Trans Asia Airways and lessors GE Capital and Air Lease.

'This has been a very good airshow,' says a very happy Airbus chief salesman John Leahy.

With its grip on the global market for single-aisle planes tightening, Airbus yesterday boldly announced that it would offer large winglet upgrades for in-service A320s currently in operation in the fleets of some 300 operators around the world. While owners will pay the cost of the retrofit, Airbus will undertake the work either on its own or through local joint venture partners.

'We are offering to start the retrofits from the beginning of 2013,' Mr Leahy says, without disclosing any numbers regarding costs.

Airbus said it invests approximately 100 million euros (S$177 million) each year to keep the A320 family eco-friendly to meet emerging stricter emission benchmarks.

The retrofit, which essentially adds a winglet that Airbus calls 'sharklet' at the tip of the wings, increases fuel efficiency of the planes by almost 4 per cent. This would close the gap somewhat between the 15 per cent fuel efficiency offered by the new A320neo and existing older planes.

Observers in Paris note that the orders flowing to Airbus on the popular single-aisle front must be worrisome for rival Boeing, which is still mulling over an upgrade for its once-popular B737s. Earlier this week, Boeing said it would decide by the end of this year whether to upgrade the ageing B737 with new engines (as Airbus has done with its A320neo), or build an all-new jet by the end of this decade.

Still, Boeing has had some success on the large plane front at this week's airshow.

It has clinched US$9.3 billion worth of new orders and commitments, including an order for six more B777-300ER planes from Qatar Airways worth some US$1.7 billion at list price, and four 787-9 Dreamliners from Air Lease Corp.

It also received orders worth some US$5.4 billion for 17 of its new, longer and bigger B747 from two unnamed customers, bringing total orders for the 'A380-beater' to 50 .

But there is no doubt who is basking in the limelight at this week's show.

What started on a seemingly ominous note for Airbus - when its A380 meant for aerial displays was grounded after clipping its wing on landing, and gearbox problems prevented demos of its new A400M military transport - has turned out to be a dream for the European planemaker.

'Maybe we should take the rest of the year off and come back next year,' joked Mr Leahy to journalists.