Airbus secured a major deal with Japan Airlines, entering Boeing’s market

Airbus announced it had won its first jet order from Japan Airlines today, breaking into the last major aviation market dominated by rival Boeing.

The aicraft manufacturer entered Boeings “airspace” with a deal that involves the sale of 31 A350 aircraft to Japan Airlines and is worth $9.5 billion based on list prices. The first aircraft will be delivered in 2019, according to the announcement.

Airbus’s biggest A350 order so far this year gives the European manufacturer a break into Japan, where the fleets of the country’s two biggest carriers, were dominated by Boeing. Japan Air choosing Airbus comes after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was delayed by years and grounded globally early in 2013 after battery malfunctions.

“This is the blue-chip order Airbus was hoping for,” said Will Horton, an analyst at CAPA Centre for Aviation in Hong Kong. “The order certainly opens the door for follow-up orders at Japan Airlines. If ANA orders Boeing, it will have to stress why the Boeing deal was better – the market will now be sensitive to who you order from.”

The two giant aircraft makers are still battling for an order of similar importance at ANA, which is also looking for around 25 new jets to replace its aging fleet of long-haul Boeing 777s from 2020.

Japanese carriers flew 43 Airbus jets till the end of 2012, up from 36 a year earlier, according to the Japan Aircraft Development Corp. ANA and its affiliate Peach Aviation Ltd. are the main carriers using the European plane-maker’s aircraft. In comparison, domestic carriers had 409 Boeing planes, up from 397.

Skymark Airlines Inc., Japan’s biggest discount carrier, is the only Japanese airline that has agreed to buy Airbus wide-body planes, with an order for six A380s. The airline is due to start operation of its first double-decker next year.

Boeing’s struggle on its 787 Dreamliner jet will move Japanese customers to Airbus and help win the endorsement of local subcontractors that traditionally shunned Airbus as the risky upstart, Stephane Ginoux, Airbus’s head of Japan, said in 2011.

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