Airbus' drop in orders sees title going to Boeing

Europe's Airbus posted a 43 percent drop in orders and surrendered its crown as the world's largest planemaker to Boeing last year, but predicted improvements in both orders and deliveries for 2013 as airlines seek to reduce fuel costs.

It also said it remained confident of achieving the maiden flight of its A350 carbon-composite airliner by mid-year. Rival Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner was grounded by US authorities overnight, citing a potential battery fire risk.

Airbus said it had booked 914 orders during 2012 in a year when Boeing caught up with demand for revamped medium-haul jets, selling exactly the same volume for one model alone.

Airbus had won the previous year's order race by a record margin and had been expected to draw a response as the planemakers waged a two-year contest to win orders by offering airlines significant fuel savings over earlier models.

Adjusted for cancellations, Airbus had 833 net orders.

Gross orders stood well ahead of the company's 2012 target of 650 jets but compared with Boeing's comparable figure of 1,339 new aircraft, they gave Airbus a market share of 41 percent.

Boeing led on 921 net orders.

The figures were closely in line with estimates of over 900 orders and a market share of 41 percent reported by Reuters after a late surge allowed Airbus to narrow the gap with Boeing.

Airbus confirmed it had delivered 588 aircraft in 2012, up 10 percent from the previous year and above target. But it was outpaced for the first time in a decade by Boeing's 601 planes.

For 2013, Airbus set a target of over 600 deliveries and 700 gross orders. Senior executives said they were confident they would continue to flatten out any volatility in deliveries by juggling customers and jets in the order book.

On specific models, Airbus missed its target of 30 orders for the A380. Instead, it sold nine superjumbos.