Airbus smashes orders at Dubai Air Show, Boeing trails behind despite big 737 Max sale

Airbus smashes orders at Dubai Air Show, Boeing trails behind despite big 737 Max sale

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — kicked off the 2021 Dubai Air Show with a bang, landing massive deals from day one. The French aerospace manufacturer had amassed 408 announced orders and commitments by the end of the show's fourth day, Wednesday, while its American counterpart trailed with 101. Airbus and Boeing are the world's two largest aerospace companies by revenue. The order numbers so far from the first major air show since the Covid-19 pandemic began are a positive sign for aviation and travel, which suffered devastating losses for much of the last 18 months. "We view orders for new aircraft as positive for the recovery of the commercial aerospace industry," Morgan Stanley said in a research note Wednesday. Airbus scored its first big win on day one of the air show, with an order for 255 of its narrow-body A321neo and A321XLR jets from American private equity firm Indigo Partners, which buys planes for low-cost carriers like Frontier, Wizz Air, Jetsmart and Volaris. It then notched a letter of intent from Air Lease Corp, set to be finalized in the coming months, for 111 aircraft across the Airbus product range: 55 A321neos, 25 A220-300s, 20 A321XLRs, seven A350F freighters