Aerospace companies in California are in an unexpected business boom as giant aircraft builder Boeing takes advantage of the stumbles of archrival Airbus to attract more aircraft orders.

Workers at a sprawling factory near Los Angeles, which has been a long-time Boeing supplier, are now happily talking about the prospects of being on job a lot longer than anticipated, perhaps a decade or more, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

After nearly 40 years of assembling fuselage sections for the world's largest flying passenger airliner, Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.'s Hawthorne factory appeared in danger of joining a long list of Southern California aerospace plants that have been shuttered in recent years.

But the business got a lift last month when German airline Lufthansa put its first orders for a new version of Boeing 747 and the company's decision to commission the fuselage work from Vought factories.

The deal, potentially worth 5 billion dollars, is just the latest to come from a confluence of Boeing's rising fortunes, the stumbles of its European rival Airbus and a market for airliners that continues to rebound strongly from its steep sales decline after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the newspaper.

Lufthansa ordered 20 of the new, longer version of the Boeing jet, dubbed the 747-8, which will be able to carry about 500 passengers, or 100 more than the current-generation 747-400.

The 747-8 orders continued the string of good news for Boeing, which as of late December had received orders for 904 aircraft, nearing its 2005 record of 1,028, while many of Boeing's subcontractors in Southern California are enjoying a boom not seen in nearly a decade.

Analysts expect more orders for the 747-8 as Airbus struggles to deliver its first A380 super-jumbo jets. The 555-passenger aircraft, beset by production problems and nearly two years behind schedule, is not expected to begin service until late 2007.

British Airways and Japanese carriers All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines could be the next customers for the Boeing aircraft, they said.

Source: Xinhua