Business News
Airbus with record 1,341 sales in 2007
By DPA
Jan 16, 2008, 10:26 GMT

Toulouse, France - European manufacturer Airbus sold a best- ever 1,341 airplanes in 2007, making up a lot of ground on its arch- rival Boeing, the company said Wednesday in the southern French city of Toulouse.

By comparison, Boeing registered 1,413 sales last year. In 2006, because of production problems with the A380 superjumbo and other difficulties, Airbus had sold only 790 aircraft, compared to 1,044 by its US competitor.

In terms of the production of commercial airliners, Airbus outscored Boeing by 453 to 441 in 2007.

As a result of the impressive figures, Airbus now boasts contracts for a total of 3,421 planes, which translates into a catalogue value of 157.1 billion dollars and about six years of production.

Airbus head Tom Enders said that the company's Power8 cost-cutting programme is progressing better than had been foreseen.

In 2007, the programme accounted for 'significantly more' permanent economizing than the 300 million euros (440 million dollars) that had been planned.

'It's closer to 500 million,' Enders said.

The Power8 programme is to save Airbus some 2.1 billion euros in costs by 2010.