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The European planemaker said it won 326 net new orders and
commitments against its estimate of a comparable Boeing tally of
443, excluding conversions from other models to support the
launch of the Boeing 737 MAX 10.
Airbus on Thursday signed deals with AirAsia, and
privately-owned Iranian carriers Zagros Airlines and Iran
Airtour.
As Airbus was unveiling its numbers, Boeing topped up its tally
by announcing a firm order for 125 737 MAX 8 airplanes with an
undisclosed customer and another deal with AerCap to convert 15
of its MAX 8 orders into the larger MAX 10.
"Is this a slower show than previous years? Yes, it is. Are we
conceding that Boeing sold a few more airplanes than we did?
Yes," Airbus sales chief John Leahy told a news conference.
Leahy said he had expected the new Boeing plane to make more of
a splash. "We had expected they would have had a bigger launch
on the 737 MAX 10, not quite as many conversions, more
incremental orders."
While he did not expect the MAX 10 to be a viable competitor to
the A321, Leahy said the Boeing plane's launch could result in
price pressure. "They're clearly going to come after us on
price."
The A321 is larger than any member of the 737 family, a gap that
the MAX 10 is intended to close.
Boeing holds its end-of-show press conference at 1000 GMT.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Victoria Bryan; Additional
reporting by Andrea Shalal and Mike Stone; editing by David
Clarke and John Stonestreet)
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