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Airbus executive to bow out after poor sales at Paris Air Show

IN a raw show of humility, Airbus SE sales chief John Leahy has conceded defeat to Boeing Co at his last European air show, and confirmed that he will retire from the company after securing US$1.7 trillion of aircraft orders over two decades.

The time-frame for Mr Leahy's exit hasn't been revealed yet. However, Mr Leahy said he will work on a smooth transition to deputy Kiran Rao at Airbus's closing press conference at the Paris Air Show.

Airbus had no new commercial aircraft to unveil at the expo, unlike Boeing, which secured 300 sales and commitments for the Max 10 stretch of its 737 single-aisle aircraft, reported Bloomberg.

"The fact is, this is a slower year for orders than previous years," Mr Leahy was quoted as saying at the briefing. "Are we conceding that Boeing sold a few more airplanes than we did? Yes. Every dog gets his day."

Airbus secured $39.7 billion of new jetliner business at the show, Mr Leahy said, comprising firm orders for 144 aircraft worth $18.5 billion at list prices and looser commitments for 182 planes valued at $21.2 billion. In terms of firm deals "those that can be included in the manufacturers' backlogs" the company came out roughly neck-and-neck with Boeing, Mr Leahy added.

Executive vice president of strategy and marketing at the commercial-plane unit, Mr Rao, has already led talks with AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes that resulted in an order for 14 A320ceo aircraft valued at $1.4 billion.

Mr Rao has a tough act to follow, with Mr Leahy having racked 15,500 orders since becoming commercial chief more than two decades ago, catapulting Airbus from an 18 per cent share of the jetliner market to a 50-50 balance with Boeing.

Airbus isn't overly concerned about the US company's plans to develop a new middle-of-market model to replace its defunct B757 and soon-to-go B767, Mr Leahy said, reiterating his assessment that the European company has an 80 per cent share of the market.

"We don't see it as a major threat," said the executive, predicting the plane, dubbed the B797 by some, will cost $12 billion to develop.

Mr Rao said that Boeing is "flying all these kites" to suggest it will have a game-changing aircraft for 2025 in part to disrupt A321neo sales, when in reality it won't be able to make the aircraft as cheaply as suggested because 70 per cent of its cost lies with suppliers and are outside of the airframer's direct control.

Mr Leahy said that Dubai-based Emirates is "very interested" in an enhanced version of Airbus's superjumbo, dubbed the A380plus.

Emirates is in early talks about the purchase of 20 A380s to add to the 140 it ordered previously, people familiar with the discussions said earlier this month. With the next main air show to be held in Dubai in November, that raises the prospect of Mr Leahy going out with a flourish in the form of a $9 billion order.

However, landing a deal will also be tough after Emirates' president Tim Clark said he's concerned about Airbus' commitment to sticking with the slow-selling A380 programme.