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Airbus beats 1,000-order annual sales target for ’13

Airbus SAS surpassed its 1,000-order annual sales target with three months to spare, even as Deutsche Lufthansa AG scrapped contracts for three A380 superjumbos.

The world’s second-largest planemaker won 1,112 orders in the first nine months before cancellations after securing deals for 170 planes in September alone, it said on Friday on its website. Rival Boeing Co said on October 3 it had booked 1,023 gross orders.

The two companies have mined a rich vein of bookings for long-range jetliners and smaller narrow-body planes as carriers modernize fleets to cut fuel burn. The Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8, a modern version of the jumbo, have been selling more slowly, and Lufthansa has said it would limit its superjumbo fleet to 14 planes, of which 10 have already been delivered.

“The cancellations result from our conservative growth and fleet plans,” Helmut Tolksdorf, a spokesman for Europe’s second-biggest airline, said following publication of the Airbus figures. Lufthansa told investors earlier that its fleet won’t grow beyond 400 planes through 2016, with previous capacity plans having called for as many as 480 aircraft.

Airbus had set a goal of at least 1,000 jet orders for the year in July after initially targeting 700 deals. Tom Enders, chief executive officer of parent company European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co, said on September 30 on Bloomberg Television that the total would be “way over” that number.

Toulouse, France-based Airbus has exceeded 1,000 orders only four times in its history, setting a record total in 2011, when it secured 1,608 gross sales.

Factoring in 50 cancellations, Airbus had 1,062 net aircraft orders in the nine months. Chicago-based Boeing had lost 133 deals for an adjusted figure of 890.