A380

Airbus expects to sell more than 1,200 aircraft this year, after beating its full-year target of at least 1,000 airliners in the first nine months.

This forecast comes after Airbus logged a number of pending orders from European airlines.

Airbus COO Customers John Leahy was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We have an internal target of 1,200 orders but I think we could even do a little better than that."

However, he said that no target had been set officially.

The announcement was made at an industry conference after Airbus secured a significant deal for its A350 XWBs from Japan Airlines (JAL).

JAL signed a $9.5bn deal yesterday with Airbus for 31 A350 XWBs, with an option for an additional 25 aircraft.

Between January and September, Airbus recorded 1,112 orders or a net total of 1,062 orders after adjusting for cancellations.

During the nine-month period, the aircraft manufacturer delivered 445 airliners.

"Between January and September, Airbus recorded 1,112 orders."

The order cancellations included three A380 superjumbos of Deutsche Lufthansa which placed a €14bn order for wide-body Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 777-9Xs jets.

According to industry experts, Airbus could increase the size and add more seats to the already stretched A350-1000 in response to Boeing’s 777-9X, the revamped version of 777.

However, Leahy said that the European plane manufacturer has no plans to develop a larger A350-1000 in the near future.

In the recent years, Airbus and Boeing have been competing for orders in the ‘mini-jumbo’ segment for jetliners that seat between 300 and 400 passengers.

At an ISTAT industry conference in Spain, both the firms traded competing claims for their latest aircraft variants.

Image: The forecast comes after Airbus logged a number of pending orders from European airlines. Photo: courtesy of Fixion / Airbus S.A.S.

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