Major orders placed for Airbus and Boeing planes

The Paris Airshow started today with major orders placed for the Airbus A380 and for Boeings 787 Dreamliner. Both companies were stating positive numbers as the demand of planes vastly increased after the show.

Boeing attracted order for 30 of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The deal is worth $3 billion from leasing firm CIT Group, the two companies said at the Paris Airshow on Wednesday. The purchase includes 10 new aircraft and the rest consisting of older 737 models, with delivery dates due in 2019 and 2020, according to Reuters. It came two days after Boeing announced another deal with TUI Travel.

CIT is also interested in the 787-10 aircraft that Boeing launched on Tuesday, said Jeff Knittel, president of transportation finance at CIT cited by Reuters. The 787-10 is the latest and largest model of the 787 Dreamliner series.

Boeings rival, Airbus, sealed a long-awaited order for 25 A350 aircraft from Air France-KLM worth $7.2 billion at list prices after Rolls-Royce and the airline reached a deal over engine maintenance. The maintenance issue almost ruined the deal at the last moment.

The airline said on Wednesday, however, that it had agreed with Rolls-Royce to equip the A350 with Trent XWB engines, including their maintenance by Air France Industries KLM Engineering. The deal twas worth $1.1 billion.

Air France-KLM is seeking to diminish costs by cutting jobs as it needs to cut 2 billion euros by the end of next year according to companys calculations. It faces tough competition from low-cost carriers who are becoming more and more popular among the air travelers.

“This shows that despite some difficulties Air France-KLM is facing, we are in sufficiently good shape to be able to plan the renewal of our long-haul fleet,” said Alexandre de Juniac, who is due to become Air France-KLM chief executive from July 1.

Despite recent problems Boeing had with the use of lithium ion batteries and the suffering image of the 787 Dreamliner even after the repairs, company has demonstrated dominance at least according to Randy Tinseth, the vice president of Boeing marketing department.

He said at the airshow, cited by CNBC, “Were going to have direct competition across each of their products. Weve got them boxed and bracketed. We have a greater opportunity because we can address more of the market. So I dont see how they grow their share.”