Airbus beats Boeing at Farnborough air show

Sales at the biennial Farnborough trade fair in the UK could not quite match the record levels of 2008, when almost 70 billion euros changed hands, but they were still a massive improvement on 2009's post-financial crisis air show at Le Bourget, near Paris, when sales totaled a meager 5.4 billion euros.

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Airbus did a roaring trade at the Farnborough International Airshow. The Franco-German company Airbus was positively bullish after selling 130 planes and securing pledges for the future purchase of a further 122. "The recession is definitively over," Airbus sales chief Tom Leahy said. "Liquidity is back in the market, traffic is back in the market and GDP growth is back." Airbus revised its sales estimates for 2010 upwards, saying that it expects to sell north of 400 planes.

Airbus bagged an order from Virgin Atlantic to purchase 40 Airbus A320 jets for Virgin America with the option to add another 20, in a deal worth at least 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion). Airbus said the deals it has either sealed or set up at the British air show will eventually be worth almost 22 billion euros, and that it is considering further increases in production of its smaller, single-aisle A320 family to cope with rising demand.

Meanwhile, Boeing flew in its new 787 Dreamliner for its debut appearance outside the US. The 787 is Boeing's answer to the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Boeing reported 103 new orders worth roughly 8 billion euros at the trade fair.