Boeing (BA, Financial) and Airbus’ (EADSY, Financial) battle for supremacy and market share is never ending. Both the aero majors keep scoring at opportunities that they get and all through 2014 this has continued. While Boeing bagged the Emirates and Ryanair orders, Airbus won orders from IndiGo and Delta Air Lines. But now the year is almost over and Boeing recently came out with its November set of numbers for orders and deliveries, and the American major has overshadowed Airbus with flying colors. Here’s a lowdown on what happened.
The numbers at a glance
During the month of November, Boeing bagged orders for a total of 221 jets from six orders and delivered 53 aircraft to 40 customers. The latest order that came Boeing’s way was that from Ryanair for 100 737MAX-200s valued at $11 billion at list prices. With these orders under its belt, the aero major reported total orders wins since January 1 of 1,380 jets which after adjusting for cancellations comes to 1,274 aircraft. Compared to this Airbus received total orders for 1,328 jets and after adjusting for cancellations, the net order figure comes to 1,031 jets – short by 243 jets.
During the month, the company delivered a total of 16 737-800s to Oman Air, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Air Lease Corporation, American Airlines, GECAS, Lion Air and Shenzhen Airlines. Apart from this Oman Air and Delta also took deliveries of 737-900ERs and China Eastern and GECAS took deliveries of 737-300ERs. In the first 11 months of the year Boeing delivered 647 jets and Airbus delivered 554 jets.
The Emirates deal did the making and breaking
Well, Boeing was able to successfully cash on the opportunities that came its way. The Emirates order not only gave Boeing a leg up in the race with order for 150 777X with options for another 50 valued at $75 billion, but also pushed Airbus down the ladder as the Gulf carrier cancelled orders for 70 A350XWBs. Without this happening, Airbus’ order count would have been 70 jets higher and Boeing’s would have been 150 jets lower, thus giving Boeing a lead of just 23 jets.
Emirates is one of the fastest growing airlines globally and for it expanding its fleet at the right time is of immense importance. The A350XWB being a plane built from scratch has chances of encountering unexpected delays as already seen which caused deliveries to get postponed from 2010 to 2014. The carrier didn’t want to risk its growth strategy and instead opted for 777X which it was sure to receive on time. The Emirates deal was different from the Ryanair, Delta and IndiGo deals in the sense that Airbus ended up with an actual loss, while the other deals represented only an opportunity loss for the respective losing party.
Can Airbus make a comeback?
Well, it’s difficult, but not impossible. If we look at the total backlog and not just what orders have been bagged during the year, Airbus is the winner with orders for more than 6,000 jets as compared to Boeing’s 5,500 plus. But, the year hasn’t been that lucky for the European plane maker. The jet maker is lagging behind Boeing by a good number and it will take nothing less than a miracle for it to surpass Boeing, especially now that just a month is left before the year finally ends. Assuming that’s not going to happen, it can be safely said that Boeing has won the crown this year.
