ID :
12518
Mon, 07/14/2008 - 19:25
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/12518
The shortlink copeid
Rising fuel prices make efficient planes more attractive
Sudipt Arora Farnborough (Britain), July 14 (PTI) As airlines worldwide struggle to survive due to profit-robbing fuel prices, plane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing still expect agood year for fresh orders.
Neither of them will come close to matching the record pace of past three years which saw them combine for over 6,000 jetliner sales. But senior executives of both companies say that 2008 will not be as bad as the industry's recentgloom-and-doom developments may suggest.
Due to skyrocketing fuel prices, the credit squeeze, weakening of economic activity and resulting slowdown in air traffic, the industry is facing a kind of financial disasternot seen since 9/11 terror attacks of 2001.
But Airbus' Chief Operating Officer for customer services John Leahy said the current oil crisis is like a two-edge sword. "Airlines are grounding older, gas-guzzling jets but continue to buy new and more fuel-efficient ones." Airbus could win 700 to 800 orders this year, he said on the sidelines of Farnborough Air Show being held here from July 14 to 20. The European consortium has a total order bookof 1,458 commercial planes.
A senior Boeing executive also told PTI that orders are still likely to be in that range, or about half what they werein 2007 when Boeing won a record 1,423 orders.
"It's a challenging market but we are still seeing goodresponse," he said.
So far, Airbus has won orders for 525 jet planes this year while Boeing has 475. The net figures till June-endinclude cancellations.
Airbus won orders for more than 900 of its single-aisle planes in 2007 and in 2005. Boeing sold 846 of its single-aisle jets last year, up from 729 in 2006 and 569 in2005.
At its recent annual general meeting in Istanbul, members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the industry cannot cope up with fuel prices, which more thandoubled what they were a year-ago.
In 2007, IATA members -- representing some 240 airlines and accounting for 93 percent of all scheduled international traffic -- saw a profit of 5.6 billion dollars, the firstsince 2000.
In the United States -- the world's biggest air travel market -- American, Continental and United Airlines are parking more than 200 older jets, slashing seat capacity and cutting thousands of jobs because of rising cost of aviationturbine fuel.
"The global airline industry could lose as much as six billion dollars this year because of high fuel prices. Part of the reason they are losing that much money is that they have very fuel-inefficient aircraft," said Leahy. "And that puts pressure on them to accelerate plans for retirement." But as the price of fuel has climbed, some airlines aredeferring orders from Airbus and Boeing.
Both airplane makers, however, have been raising production rates to accommodate record backlogs after the order gush of the past three years. And some airline customers are eager to grab coveted delivery positions when there arecancellations or deferrals.
Leahy said Airbus still plans to boost production rates of its hot-selling, single-aisle A320 family to 40 planes a month (from 34 now). Neither Airbus nor Boeing has ever hit thosekinds of rates before.
Boeing currently assembles about 31 of its single-aisle 737s a month and plans to continue at that rate, given thehigh backlog of planes to build.
Neither of them will come close to matching the record pace of past three years which saw them combine for over 6,000 jetliner sales. But senior executives of both companies say that 2008 will not be as bad as the industry's recentgloom-and-doom developments may suggest.
Due to skyrocketing fuel prices, the credit squeeze, weakening of economic activity and resulting slowdown in air traffic, the industry is facing a kind of financial disasternot seen since 9/11 terror attacks of 2001.
But Airbus' Chief Operating Officer for customer services John Leahy said the current oil crisis is like a two-edge sword. "Airlines are grounding older, gas-guzzling jets but continue to buy new and more fuel-efficient ones." Airbus could win 700 to 800 orders this year, he said on the sidelines of Farnborough Air Show being held here from July 14 to 20. The European consortium has a total order bookof 1,458 commercial planes.
A senior Boeing executive also told PTI that orders are still likely to be in that range, or about half what they werein 2007 when Boeing won a record 1,423 orders.
"It's a challenging market but we are still seeing goodresponse," he said.
So far, Airbus has won orders for 525 jet planes this year while Boeing has 475. The net figures till June-endinclude cancellations.
Airbus won orders for more than 900 of its single-aisle planes in 2007 and in 2005. Boeing sold 846 of its single-aisle jets last year, up from 729 in 2006 and 569 in2005.
At its recent annual general meeting in Istanbul, members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the industry cannot cope up with fuel prices, which more thandoubled what they were a year-ago.
In 2007, IATA members -- representing some 240 airlines and accounting for 93 percent of all scheduled international traffic -- saw a profit of 5.6 billion dollars, the firstsince 2000.
In the United States -- the world's biggest air travel market -- American, Continental and United Airlines are parking more than 200 older jets, slashing seat capacity and cutting thousands of jobs because of rising cost of aviationturbine fuel.
"The global airline industry could lose as much as six billion dollars this year because of high fuel prices. Part of the reason they are losing that much money is that they have very fuel-inefficient aircraft," said Leahy. "And that puts pressure on them to accelerate plans for retirement." But as the price of fuel has climbed, some airlines aredeferring orders from Airbus and Boeing.
Both airplane makers, however, have been raising production rates to accommodate record backlogs after the order gush of the past three years. And some airline customers are eager to grab coveted delivery positions when there arecancellations or deferrals.
Leahy said Airbus still plans to boost production rates of its hot-selling, single-aisle A320 family to 40 planes a month (from 34 now). Neither Airbus nor Boeing has ever hit thosekinds of rates before.
Boeing currently assembles about 31 of its single-aisle 737s a month and plans to continue at that rate, given thehigh backlog of planes to build.
