Airbus dominated the first two days of the show with its announcement of the company’s A330neo passenger plane. The new plane is a re-engined version of the A330 and competes with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners. Airbus has taken orders for more than 100 of the planes, which carry a list price of about $275 million for the larger A330-900neo and about $242 million for the smaller A330-800neo.
Boeing trailed its competitor for the first two days of the Farnborough show, but Wednesday’s announcements made all the difference. Qatar Airways reconfirmed its original order placed in November at the Dubai Airshow for 50 of Boeing’s new 777Xs and took an option on another 50 of the planes. Including the options, the deal was worth nearly $38 billion, well over half the total that Boeing has posted for the show. The list price for a 777-9X is $377 million.
Boeing also took orders for 52 of its 737 family of planes Wednesday to add to the 20 orders it took on Tuesday and the 45 orders the company wrote on Monday. The 737 is Boeing’s best-selling plane and competes directly against the Airbus A320 family. Airbus took orders for 100 A320s on Monday, 142 on Tuesday and none Wednesday.
Except for Qatar Airways and China’s Hainan Airlines, the orders for both companies have come from aircraft leasing firms like Air Lease Corp. (NYSE: AL) and AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER).
Boeing stock closed down 1.3% on Wednesday, at $127.42 in a 52-week range of $101.77 to $144.57.
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