Boeing Co reported a record number of commercial airplane orders -- 1,044 -- for last year yesterday, and all but formally regained the lead from troubled Airbus in the important sales category amid strong demand for its fuel-conscious 787 Dreamliner and single-aisle 737.
Boeing remained a runner-up to market leader Airbus for a fourth straight year in aircraft deliveries, the category that determines the world's leading manufacturer of airplanes.
Boeing reported 398 deliveries, up 37 percent.
However, it was short of the 425 projected recently by European rival Airbus, which is scheduled to announce its year-end totals on Jan. 17.
Still, the Chicago-based company's revived prospects, in combination with Airbus' missteps with airplane delays and its management discord, appear to virtually ensure that Boeing will be able to return to the top of the commercial jet-making business by next year, according to aerospace analysts.
"It was really the year when Boeing came into its own and Airbus essentially went through a meltdown," Phil Finnegan of the Teal Group said.
"You've got the combination of Boeing with a good, hot new product and Airbus fumbling with technical problems and other issues that no one could have expected," he said.
Boeing reported that it had succeeded in surpassing the previous year's total of 1,002 net airplane orders and coming up just short of Airbus' all-time industry record of 1,055 , which it brought in last year.
Boeing's gross orders, which do not account for cancelations and conversions of orders, totaled 1,050.
Airbus has been gradually losing market share and trailing Boeing by a wide margin with 635 orders as of Nov. 30.
Barring a seemingly impossible barrage of orders during last month, the slumping plane maker will drop to second place in orders when it announces last year's totals.
In addition to quadrupling the delay in production of its A380 superjumbo jet, Airbus and parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co have struggled with the loss of three CEOs, one A380 customer, a large potential order from another client and US$6.4 billion in forecast profits.
Boeing, in the meantime, had orders from 76 different customers last year.
During the last 10 days of last year customers placed orders for more than 100 Boeing airplanes.
Orders were placed by Korean Air, Xiamen Airlines, Jet Airways, Air Berlin, Delta Airlines and other unidentified companies.
All signs point to Boeing's momentum continuing, if other factors do not interfere.
"We expect continued strong orders in '07 and '08 as North American and European airlines begin to replace their aging fleet," Merrill Lynch analyst Ronald Epstein wrote in a research note.
Scott Carson, chief executive officer of Boeing's Seattle-based commercial jet-building division, said the company has built a well-balanced backlog of orders after struggling previously.
"The strong orders for the past two years are a validation of our strategy of focusing on our customers, simplifying our product and services offerings and transforming our production system," he said in a statement.
Carson, who took over the job after Alan Mulally left to become the CEO at Ford Motor Co, was credited with reinvigorating the company's sales force as its commercial airplane sales chief serving from December 2004 until last September.
Boeing recorded 157 orders last year for its 787 airplane, which is due to enter service next year after test flights beginning later this year, and a record 729 for its stalwart 737.
The company also reported 76 orders for 777s, 10 for 767s and 72 for 747s -- making the highest total for that program in sixteen years.
Eighty-one of the ordered airplanes were freighters.
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