Airbus has won a potential $4.2 billion order for its A350 passenger jet, its first major deal at a subdued Farnborough Airshow, where a faltering global economy is casting clouds as dark as the skies over southern Britain.
The deal announced on Tuesday with Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific is a major boost for the European planemaker, which has been struggling to sell its A350-1000 "mini-jumbo" and make a dent in Boeing's hold on the lucrative corner of the passenger jet market, just below 400 seats.
Boeing itself announced a provisional deal to sell 100 next-generation narrowbody 737 airliners to leasing firm GECAS. They are worth around $9.3 billion at list prices.
That was the US group's second big deal for the revamped plane in as many days, bolstering its fightback against Airbus's A320neo in the top-selling short-haul segment of the market.
Both deals, however, were well flagged in advance of the show, where there have so far been no major surprises.
The event "really has been pretty quiet," said Scott Donnelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Textron Inc, the US manufacturer of Bell and Cessna aircraft. He told Reuters: "It's certainly one of the quieter Farnboroughs."
Boeing and Airbus, which battle for the bulk of a jet market estimated at $100 billion a year, played down expectations ahead of the aerospace industry's showcase gathering, arguing their order books were already bulging.
Despite stuttering economies, they say demand remains strong as airlines modernise fleets to survive high fuel costs and the balance of growth shifts towards Asia, with Boeing raising its long-term industry forecasts last week.
Airbus sales chief John Leahy was in typically combative and upbeat form: "The party's over?. Why, it's only the second day of the show, for heavens' sake," he said of suggestions orders were drying up. "We'll have some important announcements.
"The order rate has to slow down at some point," he told Reuters Insider TV. "We're looking at six to seven years worth of production running flat out if we don't sell anything for the next six or seven years."
Airbus, owned by European aerospace giant EADS, said Cathay Pacific planned to buy 10 new A350-1000 aircraft, worth around $3.2 billion at list prices. It also converted an existing order for 16 A350-900 jets to the larger model, adding a further $1 billion to the possible new income from the day's signing.
The carbon-composite A350 spans two of the accepted categories of airliner, aiming to challenge the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as well as the US company's most profitable plane, the 777 mini-jumbo.
Boeing, meanwhile, said GECAS had committed to buy 75 of its 737 MAX 8 planes as well as 25 of its next-generation 737-800.
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