Airbus gains ground on new orders
European planemaker Airbus announced more than 60 new jet orders Wednesday, making up some ground on U.S. rival Boeing Co.
Airbus arrived at the Farnborough International Airshow on the backfoot after costly new production delays to its flagship A380 superjumbo sparked high-level management changes. It unveiled deals with plane leasing company International Lease Finance Corp., low-cost carrier AirAsia Bhd. and Greece’s Aegean Airlines SA.
The vast majority of the orders were for Airbus’ A320-family single-aisle passenger jets.
Malaysia’s AirAsia ordered 40 of the planes, with an option for 30 more, while ILFC, a unit of American International Group Inc., ordered six of the jets.
Aegean Airlines picked up three more A320s to replace aging aircraft in its fleet.
Boeing Co., meanwhile, announced orders for 14 of its passenger and cargo planes.
The Chicago-based company said that ILFC exercised an option to purchase a total of 10 planes — six 737-800s, two 777-300ERs and two 787 Dreamliners — in a deal worth around $1.2 billion at list prices.
The rash of deals came on the third day of the airshow.
•The chief executives of Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. urged Congress Wednesday to pass long-stalled pension legislation, warning they could be forced to terminate their pension plans without action on the bill.
The House and Senate passed separate pension bills at the end of last year, but negotiators have not yet reconciled them. A key sticking point is whether to single out financially struggling airlines for special treatment.
The Senate wants to give them up to 20 years to get back to full funding of their pension plans. House negotiators don’t.
•XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said late Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission had rejected its solution for bringing certain radio units into compliance with FCC standards.
XM had said in late May that it was suspending shipments of some radio models, including the Delphi XM SKYFi2 and the Audiovox Xpress, after the FCC found that the small FM transmitters the units have didn’t meet the FCC’s emission standards.
The units are intended for use in cars, and allow satellite radio subscribers to listen to XM’s programming by beaming the signal to a car’s standard FM radio over a frequency that isn’t being used by a regular station.