Boeing’s fresh blow as Airbus seals €31bn China deal
Airbus secured a $35bn (€31bn) jet deal from China during a state visit by President Xi Jinping to France, dealing a blow to Boeing as it grapples with the grounding of its best-selling jet.
The mammoth order consists of 290 A320 series narrow-body planes and 10 A350 wide-bodies, Toulouse-based Airbus said. The deal’s value is almost double that touted by French President Emmanuel Macron in January 2018 during a trip to Beijing.
The Airbus coup comes while Boeing’s own 737 Max narrow-body -- the chief global rival to the A320 -- has been grounded following two fatal crashes in five months.
A preliminary report on an Ethiopian Airlines crash will very likely be released this week, the country’s transport ministry said, as Boeing prepares to brief more airlines on software and training updates on the 737 Max jet.
The 737 Max is Boeing’s best-selling plane, with orders worth more than $500bn. Days after the Ethiopian crash, and five months after a Lion Air crash off Indonesia, the jets were grounded globally.
Boeing is also struggling with the fallout from a China-US trade war that has seen sales to the Asian nation dry up, just as Airbus bolsters its position with an offer to expand production facilities in Tianjin. Airbus shares rose 2%, having gained 38% this year. Boeing shares were relatively unchanged.
The deal announced in Paris will include both Neo and so-called classic or CEO versions of the A319, A320 and A321, though the majority will be A320neos and A321neos, according to officials.
China typically orders planes in large batches and allocates them to airlines later. The latest A320neo model has a list price of $110.6m and the A350-900 sells for $317.4m before discounts. Irish passengers have been affected by Boeing’s crisis.
Norwegian Air International said in response to the suspension of the 737 Max by European aviation authorities, which are used on its Cork and Shannon routes to the US, it would transport passengers by bus to Dublin, where they will fly on different Boeing aircraft.
The affected flights are from Shannon from April 1-10, while Cork flights from April 2-9 are included.
