Airbus is No. 1 jet-maker in 2011

EU aircraft maker Airbus captured a record number of orders for new commercial jets last year, taking in 1,419 orders, worth $140 billion.


Airbus soared past Chicago-based rival Boeing Co.'s total of 805 aircraft in 2011 and its previous record of 1,413 net orders in 2007.


The big seller for Airbus with 1,226 bookings was the upcoming A320neo, which is a new fuel-sipping version of its bestselling jet, the A320. Airbus plans on delivering the first one in 2015.


In 2011, Airbus said it delivered a total of 534 aircraft.


The company plans on hitting a target of 570 deliveries during 2012 but expects commercial orders to drop more than 50% to between 600 and 650.


Even so, Airbus wants to hit an all-time production high of 42 aircraft a month in 2012 of the single-aisle A320. It also wants to meet a monthly goal of 9.5 wide-body twin-engine A330s and produce three of its double-decker A380 super jumbo jets each month.


First, the 2011 results: In a record sales year, Airbus delivered 534 airplanes to Boeing's 477, mostly due to faster production of its smaller, single-aisle A320 jets.


However, Boeing delivered 82 of its more valuable very large jets, compared with 26 superjumbo jets for Airbus.


As a result of that imbalance, a Seattle Times analysis using market-pricing data provided by aircraft-valuation firm Avitas estimates Boeing's total revenue from its deliveries at $33 billion, compared with an estimated $32 billion in Airbus revenue.


Looking at the value of the jets also considerably narrows the gap in sales.


The Seattle Times analysis pegs the value of the 2011 Airbus orders at $70 billion, compared with $66 billion for Boeing.


That's a 51.5 percent market share for Airbus, far less than the 64 percent share in units sold.


And what are the prospects for the year ahead?


Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with the Teal Group, said jet sales in 2011 were skewed by the eight-month gap between the launch of Airbus' new single-aisle jet, the A320neo, and Boeing's response, the 737 MAX.


That gap meant the Airbus neo had phenomenal sales last year, with 1,226 firm orders, while the MAX barely got off the ground, with 150 firm orders.


Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell acknowledged this year's sales must come down from last year's high.


"Clearly, the neo is what drove that," he said. "No one expects us to have another year in 2012 like we had in 2011.