For the year so far, Boeing has booked a net total of 823 jets, compared to Airbus with 705 net orders. Boeing gives special attention to the widebody part of the order lists. The US manufacturer booked firm orders for 273 widebody jets. Airbus's net tally of widebody jet orders so far in 2014 is negative - a deficit of 27 orders. Airbus had to digest a cancellation of 70 A350 XWBs by Emirates and another setback was the cancellation of six A380 megajets ordered by the Japanese airline Skymark.
The Boeing total includes two big orders for a total of 200 777X aircraft from Emirates and Qatar Airways. Those deals were already announced last year, but made firm not earlier than in July. So they account for this year's total. At first sight, the statistics seem quite worrisome for Airbus. But the situation is not as hopeless as Boeing likes us to believe. At the Farnborough Airshow customers signed commitments for 121 Airbus A330neo aircraft. These are not firm orders yet, but Airbus may expect that most commitments may result in orders, maybe a number of them already later this year. It is undoubtedly a promising start for the project.
After the cancellation by Emirates, Airbus still has firm orders for 742 A350s in its books, almost the same amount as Boeing had sold 787s when the Dreamliner neared certification.
The A380 megajet remains problematic, however. It appears very difficult to sell such a big plane. New customers are hard to find and existing customers are cutting back their orders or even cancelling them completely. A number of A380-orders remains uncertain. But Airbus has this problem in common with Boeing. The 747-8 so far has sold not more than 120 aircraft.
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