After record year, Airbus predicts orders to drop
24 January 2012In the wake of a record year for new aircraft sales, Airbus predicts that demand for its jets would fall by about half in 2012 as the waiting list for its popular single-aisle planes grew and airlines looked to its U.S. rival, Boeing, to fill their steadily increasing capacity needs.
Despite signs of a deepening slowdown in Europe and North America and waning airline industry profits, however, executives at the European plane maker and its parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, said they were confident the group’s performance would continue to buck the broader economic downtrend.
Airbus recorded net orders for 1,419 commercial jets in 2011, up from 574 in 2010, giving it a market share of 64 percent by volume, or around 54 percent by list-price value. Deliveries of new jets reached 534, up 5 percent from the previous year.
source: nytimes.com
