Airbus SE has secured two major orders from the flagship carriers of Japan and South Korea, giving the European manufacturer a strategic win in markets that have traditionally leaned toward archrival Boeing Co.
Japan Airlines Co said it is buying 21 Airbus 350-900 as well as 11 A321neos, breaking Boeing’s exclusive hold as the sole single-aisle jet supplier for the carrier. Boeing brought home a smaller deal, for 10 Boeing 787 wide-body jets.
Two hours later, Korean Air Lines Co announced the purchase of 33 Airbus A350 jets in a winner-takes-all contest that left Boeing empty-handed.
Photo: AFP
The commercial successes would help Airbus deepen relations with two carriers that for decades built the bulk of their fleets around the US manufacturer.
Boeing has been in crisis for several months following a near-catastrophic accident on a 737 Max 9 model in early January. Nevertheless, the carrier has managed to log several big orders since then, and loyal carriers such as Ryanair Holdings PLC have pledged their support to the US company as it seeks to improve its manufacturing processes.
This year is shaping up to be buoyant for wide-body aircraft orders, with Qatar Airways QCSC seeking to purchase as many as 150 twin-aisle jets. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) in Hong Kong is also considering a sizeable deal involving dozens of mid-sized wide-body jets. There are also big narrow-body orders on the horizon with Cebu Air Inc looking to close out an order for as many as 150 planes.
Korean Air mostly ordered the larger variant of Airbus’ A350 wide-body model. Of the almost 160 planes in Korean Air’s fleet, 65 percent are from Boeing. The carrier still has about 60 Boeing jets on backlog and about 75 with Airbus after its latest order announcement.
Japan Airlines has about 155 Boeing jets in its fleet with just 17 Airbus jets, the company’s latest financial presentation showed.
Demand for larger jets and bulk buying, bullish bets on future travel growth and strains on plane makers’ ability to meet demand for single-aisle aircraft this decade is fueling a surge in wide-body orders over the past 12 months.
Last year saw a series of bumper orders including an order for 90 777X jets from Emirates Airline and 50 from United Airlines Holdings Inc for the 787-9.
Airbus scored big with 70 wide-body jets out of 220 ordered by Turkish Airlines among other deals. Thai Airways International PCL unveiled an order for 45 787 Dreamliners at the Singapore Airshow last month, having agreed on the deal in December last year.
Both plane makers anticipate that the Asia-Pacific region would account for 40 percent of global air traffic in two decades, up from one-third, according to their long-term projections.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS