Boeing Orders Crush Airbus Total Through August

Airbus has written a total of 1,001 orders through the end of August and received 279 cancellations. The company claims that its high number of cancellations is due to customers cancelling orders for the current version of the A320ceo and replacing orders for the more fuel-efficient A320neo. Of the cancellations Airbus counts 69 A320ceo to A320neo conversions. The company’s point appears to be that it hasn’t really lost an order, and that’s true. But the net effect on the total count doesn’t change.

The Airbus A320neo equipped with new engines from the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UTX) is due to take its first test flight later this month. First customer delivery of the plane is scheduled for late next year.

Boeing has taken orders for 1,004 planes for the year to date through September 2 and has received just 63 cancellations. Of the cancelled orders 54 are for the company’s 737 and nine are for the 787.

Through August, Airbus has delivered 389 new airplanes to customers compared with 461 for Boeing. Both companies’ bread-and-butter is the single-aisle narrow-body jet, the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320. Boeing delivered 315 of its 737s and Airbus delivered 306 of its single aisle planes in the first eight months of 2014.

For the full year, Airbus expects to deliver about the same number of planes it did in 2013 — 626. Boeing has forecast 2014 deliveries at 715 to 725.

Boeing’s shares closed down about 0.4% on Thursday, at $125.46 in a 52-week range of $105.11 to $144.57. Trading volume was about 25% below the daily average of around 4.3 million shares.

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