Airbus net orders down a further two in September

Paris: Airbus, the world's largest aircraft manufacturer ahead of Boeing, finds net new orders for the year pared to 123 aircraft, from 125 at the end of August, according to company data released Wednesday. For September, it sold two aircraft against four cancellations.

The cancellations included three narrow-body aircraft cancelled by Kingfisher Red, the low-fare arm of India's Kingfisher Airlines, formerly known as Deccan Aviation, as well as a wide-body A330-200 cancelled by Guggenheim Aviation Partners.

The Toulouse-based manufacturer also delivered 38 planes in September, bringing the total number of deliveries this year to 358. These included one more A380 superjumbo to Singapore Airlines (SIA).

It has delivered six of these $327 million mammoth aircraft so far this year, with commitments for seven more deliveries in the fourth quarter. The manufacturer had pared down its delivery forecast for the superjumbo to 13 this year, against the earlier projected 14, with SIA deferring delivery of one A380 into 2010.

Deliveries are particularly important in the aircraft manufacturing business as clients make the largest payment instalment only at the time of delivery.

As for Boeing, though it received 170 new orders between 1 January and 29 September, heavy cancellations, particularly of its much-delayed 787 Dreamliner, more than halved net orders to 79 aircraft.

Airbus is owned by European aerospace group EADS.