Airbus has secured commitments for just over 100 of its revamped A320neo single aisle airliner family ahead of next week's Paris Air Show. The European planemaker, which designs the wings of all its aircraft at its Filton plant in Bristol, has now notched up sales and options for its best-selling A320 family of 464 since the turn of the year, when it set itself a target of 500 commitments by the time of the show.
Meanwhile US rival Boeing won its first order on Wednesday for two of its single-aisle updated 737-800 jets from Japan's aircraft leasing company MC Aviation Partners, worth £95m ($153m).
The American planemaker has yet to announce how it will to respond to the A320neo. According to the Financial Times, the US group is more likely to opt for a new jet rather than upgrade the existing aircraft which has already had two redesigns since it first flew in the 1960s.
The head of Boeing’s commercial jet division, Jim Albaugh, said earlier this week that the company had the technology to build an all-new aircraft that could be ready for service by the end of the decade. The market for short-haul jets with a capacity of between 100 and 200 seats is expected to total around 25,000 new aircraft in the next 20 years – around 70% deliveries, This is equivalent to about half the £2.500bn ($4,000bn) worth of large commercial jets the two big expect to deliver.
