Plane makers witness turbulence in wake of financial crisis

As the international air traffic market was badly hit by the financial crisis, the world's leading plane makers, French Airbus and American Boeing, both registered a significant decrease in orders during the first ten months of this year.

Taking account of its order cancellations, which amounted to 28, the Airbus company announced Friday that its net orders from January to October were only 123.

Even though Airbus can realize the positive annual objective of300 orders disclosed by its sales director at the Paris Air Show in August, the recent number of orders has taken a deep plunge compared to the 1341 planes Airbus sold in 2007 before the financial crisis spread worldwide.

However, for Boeing, orders slumped to only 84 in the same period. Among the 111 cancellations announced by Boeing, 83 involved the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The much delayed long-haul carrier was the new flagship of Airbus' main rival.

Since the financial crisis was triggered last year, a decreased demand in the civil aviation and freight traffic market caused a suspension or utter cancellation of orders for new civil planes and freighters.

The civil aviation market would see a decline of 3 percent, while the freight aviation market would witness a decline of 5 percent, according to an early estimation by the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is based in United States.

Although there were signs of resilience in a few developed countries' reports of economic growth, the rebound of the aviation market, as represented by the orders received by plane manufacturers, may take more time.

Source:Xinhua