Foresaking jet orders drama, Boeing talks military LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) =97 Overshadowed by arch rival Airbus in its=20 core commercial jet business, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has been putting= =20 the emphasis on its diverse array of military products at this week's Paris= =20 Air Show. Airbus won big aircraft orders from two Middle East airlines,=20 Emirates and Qatar, eclipsing Boeing in the news headlines all week despite= =20 Boeing's inclusion in the Emirates order via a leasing deal. But such=20 events can be staged public relations exercises and generally do not=20 reflect what goes on behind the scenes at big industry shows, particularly= =20 on the military side of the aerospace business. Nor do they represent how=20 jet order patterns really play out over the full year, analysts and Boeing= =20 executives said. Randy Baseler, Boeing's top marketing official, noted that= =20 of 369 orders announced at the Farnborough air show in 2000, only about 10= =20 percent were really firm orders. At the show, Boeing had announced 139=20 orders and Airbus, 230. But by year's end, Boeing's total orders were 589=20 and the Airbus' tally was 492, he said. For the next two years, similar=20 patterns emerged, although Airbus' net orders in 2002 surpassed Boeing's by= =20 57 planes. Ever since the September 11, 2001 U.S. hijacked plane attacks,=20 Boeing's profitability has been hurt as commercial aircraft revenues=20 plunged. Once an upturn in civil aviation begins in earnest in the United=20 States and worries over the SARS virus dissipate, analysts say that trend=20 will reverse. Meanwhile, it's working the customer that counts and focusing on highly=20 profitable military orders, according to many people attending the show.=20 Boeing is the world's second biggest defence contractor behind Lockheed=20 Martin. "For the most part, we're not negotiating deals," said Toby Bright,= =20 Boeing's top commercial jet salesman, in an interview. "That's not what=20 goes on at an air show." Jim Albaugh, Boeing's top defence official, told=20 Reuters he was as busy as usual meeting with various customers and=20 constituents despite the lack of top U.S. military officials. In the=20 vanguard of Boeing's booming defence business =97 which will account for= more=20 than 50 percent of the entire company's estimated $49 billion in revenue in= =20 2003 =97 are a number of projects geared to driving the military's fighting= =20 capabilities toward network-linked systems. Also hot are the recently=20 approved in-flight refuelling tanker leasing deal, missile defence,=20 homeland security, intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles. There are=20 scores of others including many classified programs. CHALET NETWORK At Le Bourget, a working airport on the outskirts of Paris, several rows of= =20 makeshift "chalets" or elaborate tents are set up for the show on the=20 tarmac. Here, executives, financiers, military officials, suppliers,=20 bankers and others find each other easily, just a short walk away. "I can=20 walk through the chalets in between meetings and touch base with a dozen=20 customers that have just dropped in," Bright said. "It's still about=20 relationships." For instance Bright said everyone at the top of Poland's=20 aviation industry showed up unexpectedly at the Boeing chalet earlier in=20 the week, including the head of national airline LOT . Certainly Boeing has= =20 suffered from stiff competition from its Toulouse-based European rival over= =20 the last few decades, which has won business with formerly all-Boeing=20 customers. And as such, maintaining relationships with customers is=20 increasingly critical for Boeing as it prepares for the first time to see=20 its annual commercial aircraft deliveries fall below that of Airbus. While= =20 Boeing forecasts it will deliver 280 jets this year, Airbus is sticking by= =20 plans to deliver 300. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************