=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2009/06/18/internatio= nal/i033404D68.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, June 18, 2009 (AP) Airbus extends air show order lead over Boeing By GREG KELLER, AP Business Writer (06-18) 05:26 PDT LE BOURGET, France (AP) -- Airbus extended its lead over archrival Boeing Co. in the hunt for orders at the Paris Air Show on Thursday with the signature of two deals with Chinese and Hungarian airlines. On the fourth day of the world's largest air show, which has seen far fewer deals than years past, Airbus and Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air signed a memorandum of understanding for 50 A320 single-aisle passenger jets worth a total of $3.8 billion at list prices. The deal should become a firm order shortly, Airbus' Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said at a signing ceremony. Including its existing fleet of 24 A320s, Wizz Air will have ordered a total of 132 Airbus jets, Airbus said. The Wizz Air deal came on the back of a $1.45 billion order for 20 A320s that Airbus customer China Eastern Airlines announced overnight. Airbus has now racked up $11.5 billion in orders and agreements this wee= k, well ahead of Boeing, which notched up its first air show order on Wednesday — a $153 million deal with Japan's MC Aviation Partners for only two jets. Boeing shrugged off the Airbus announcements, saying the company doesn't save up orders to announce at air shows. Yet even Airbus' numbers were diminutive compared to sales in past years. Airlines and governments strapped for cash and credit appeared to have come to the air show mostly as tourists instead of buyers this year, admiring the high-tech hardware but hiding their checkbooks. Airbus' spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said he is "confident there are more orders to come," but time was running out as many exhibitors arrived to the fourth day of the week-long air show with suitcases in hand. The air show, which has also been haunted by unresolved questions about the crash of Air France Flight 447, opens to the public on Friday. With commercial orders scarce, American defense contractors elbowed into the troubled market for European military transport planes at the air show. As delays mount for Airbus' troubled new A400M military transport airlifter, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing are offering their proven C-130J and C-17 models as alternatives to the European air forces who are in urgent need of a new transport. "Many countries in Europe are looking at their airlift requirements and they need to make decisions in the short term," Peter Simmons, spokesman for Lockheed's Air Mobility division, said Wednesday. "We have been approached by a number of countries in Europe to fulfill that role." Boeing also says it has held talks with members of the seven-nation consortium involved in the Airbus program. The A400M transporter program was launched in 2003 with a joint order for 180 planes from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey. But Airbus missed a March 31 contractual deadline for the first flight, and is negotiating new technical requirements and commercial terms with the seven buyers. Analysts say the project could even be on the verge of collapse. The costly delay is especially painful for recession-hit governments. ---------= ------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2009 AP <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".