Sales dive leaves widebody aircraft on taxi to nowhere

Airbus and Boeing are expecting aircraft deals to be slow for up to three years, but the world’s two biggest passenger jet manufacturers are confident that bulging order backlogs will carry them through the dry season. Amid falling demand for jets, the European and US aerospace companies are increasing production of their most popular aircraft to record levels, which may reduce the size of their backlogs but also raise profits. “We will stay in a slow period [for aircraft orders] for a couple of years while we burn down the backlog,” says John Leahy, chief salesman at Airbus. “People have been buying at a rate of over 1,000 a year. Of course the order cycle will go down. But … we have been able to pause when we need to in a downturn because of the massive backlog.” After six years of booming deals, the order slowdown is being felt most in certain widebody aircraft, raising questions over prospects for some of these big ticket, long-haul passenger jets which sell for $200m to $400m or more. Dennis Muilenburg, CE of Boeing, said this month that he expected sales of twin-aisle aircraft to be tough until 2020, as the company introduces a new generation of large aircraft. “The challenge we have is between now and the end of this decade, that roughly three-year time period, as we go through the transition to the [new] 777X [twin-aisle jet] and some … local hesitation in widebody orders,” he said.<br/>