Etihad Buys Airbus, Boeing Jets Worth $20 Bln

The Abu Dhabi carrier said it was buying 35 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777s.

Etihad Airways ordered 100 planes worth over $20 billion from Airbus and Boeing as Gulf carriers ruled a slower-than-normal opening day at the Farnborough air show.

The Abu Dhabi carrier said it was buying 25 Airbus wide-body A350 aircraft, 10 A380 superjumbos and 20 single-aisle A320 planes in a transaction worth $11 billion at list prices.

Etihad also ordered 35 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777s, in a deal Boeing said was worth $9.4 billion.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders said the order competition was "hard fought" and "tough".

High oil prices have dozens of western airlines struggling to avoid bankruptcy while a new breed of majors from the Gulf invest in large fleets backed by oil wealth and driven by a concerted push to develop the region as a crossroads for globalisation.

"The size of our order .. mirrors the rising prominence of the Middle East and its increasing emergence as a new focal point of global aviation," Etihad chief James Hogan said.

Etihad is following in the path of other fast-expanding Gulf airlines like carrier Emirates of Dubai.

Boeing earlier in the day struck first in its biennial battle with archrival Airbus by securing an order for 50 single-aisle 737 airliners from Gulf based low-cost start-up carrier FlyDubai in a deal worth $4 billion including an additional four aircraft to be leased.

SLOW START

The world's largest air show got off to a slow start, however, as record high fuel prices, tight credit and slowing economies squeeze airlines and hurt ticket demand.

Noticeably absent on day one was the French defence industry with many executives staying at home for a Bastille Day parade.

Even giant International Lease Financing Corp moved to quash its own predictions of a big order, saying no plans were set.

With little business being announced, industry executives lined up to watch British racing driver Lewis Hamilton race a Formula One car down the runway in a race against a Learjet executive jet built by Canada's Bombardier. The plane lost.

The race was a brief distraction from serious times for the industry as oil prices squeeze airlines and tight credit and slowing economies prompt travellers to think twice before booking plane tickets.

Airbus is promoting the A380's fuel efficiency and low emissions, but Boeing says the world needs few 525-seat planes.

Tweaking its marketing to adjust to concerns over pollution, Airbus flew an A380 over Farnborough painted with the slogan "A better environment inside and out" on its tail.

The aviation jamboree, held on alternate years in Farnborough and Paris, comes as industry executives assess how to tackle oil at records highs above $140 a barrel.

Airbus and Boeing had their dominance of the market for planes with over 100 seats challenged on Sunday when Bombardier launched a 110-130 seat jet, the CSeries.

The usual deafening flying displays usually barely distract from deal-making in the first half of the week-long event, but Farnborough will come to a halt later on Monday for the Lockheed Martin F22 Raptor, making its international show debut.

Plans call for a manoeuvre called a "tail-slide" in which the pilot shoots nearly straight up, then lets the sleek plane drop without stalling.

Fighter jets were also the focus of an announcement from Raytheon, which said on Monday it would challenge rival Northrop Grumman Corp by offering a smaller version of its Active Electronically Scanned Array aimed at fighters such as the F-16, including a vast market for upgrades.