Airbus asserted its dominance over arch rival Boeing for the second year running on Wednesday, when it reported deliveries of 320 jetliners in 2004 and predicted record deliveries and a majority of the market again in 2005. Airbus, the largest unit of European aerospace group EADS, said it had won 53 percent of global deliveries for 100-seat-plus passenger jets in 2004, holding on to the civil aviation crown it seized from Boeing in 2003.
As European governments and the United States set out to resolve a dispute between Boeing and Airbus over state aid, the Toulouse-based manufacturer challenged Boeing to another commercial duel, which it vowed to win in 2005.
"I am virtually certain that in 2005 we will again exceed deliveries of the competition," Airbus chief Noel Forgeard told a news conference. He reiterated parent EADS's target for between 350 and 360 Airbus deliveries in 2005 - a record.
The European Union and United States have averted, for now, a full-blown trade clash over aircraft subsidies by agreeing on Tuesday to three months of talks.
Airbus had requested about 1 billion euros in European government loans as launch aid for its next A350 aircraft programme - its answer to Boeing's future 7E7 Dreamliner - but the request has been frozen pending the outcome of those talks.
Airbus said it expected to receive between 300 and 350 orders in 2005, including 50 or 60 for the long-range A350 which it hopes to announce by the time of the Paris air show in June.
That compares with 370 orders, of which four were cancelled, in 2004 when the company's gross market share of new plane orders was 57 percent.
The A350 is in its early commercial phase and is expected to get the final development go-ahead in the next few months if Airbus wins the orders it expects. These more or less match Boeing's current 7E7 order book of 56 planes.
The 4-billion-euro project does not depend on the outcome of trade talks, Forgeard said, adding that China would come in as a risk-sharing partner with a project stake of 5 percent.
Shares in EADS, which owns 80 percent of Airbus, had slipped 1.1 percent to 22.17 euros by 1441 GMT, underperforming weaker European stocks. Shares in 20-percent minority shareholder BAE Systems rose.
While airlines rarely pay official list prices for aircraft, Forgeard said the average price paid in 2004 for an Airbus was "significantly higher" in all segments last year than in 2003.
Total Airbus revenue was just over 20 billion euros ($26.19 billion) in 2004, he said.
Airbus also posted productivity gains of 7 percent in 2004, meaning its unit costs would have fallen by that much if prices for all raw materials and other costs had stayed flat, he said.
Its 2004 operating margin should be close to its 10 percent medium-term target, having reached 9.6 percent at the nine-month stage, Chief Financial Officer Andreas Sperl said.
The 2004 order book includes confirmation of an order from Thai Airways for six of the A380 double-decker planes which Airbus is building at a total development cost of about 12 billion euros, including 1.45 billion euros of budget overruns.
The deal was nearly derailed by another trade row, this time between Thailand and the European Union over shrimp exports.
Forgeard said the 555-seat A380 now had 139 firm orders including the six from Thai Airways and four from Etihad Airways of the UAE, both signed up as customers in 2004.
"I think we will have no trouble finding two new (A380) clients this year, as we did last year," Forgeard said.
He dismissed reports of weight problems on the A380, due to be inaugurated in front of 5,000 people including the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Spain in Toulouse on January 18.
Orders in 2004 were particularly strong in the smaller single-aisle range of aircraft in the A320 family, with 279 new orders buoyed by demand from low-cost carriers, Airbus said.
Market share of 64 percent offset a far weaker performance in 2003 when Airbus had grabbed only 42 percent of that segment.
"A bit above 50 percent (over two years) is exactly where we like to be," Forgeard said.