Boeing set to trump Airbus at Paris show

By Bill Rigby

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (BA.N) looks set to announce a series of big plane orders at the Paris Air Show next week, rubbing in its newfound dominance over Airbus on its European rival's home turf.

The Chicago-based company is outselling its main competitor two to one so far this year as airlines queue up to buy its new carbon and titanium 787 Dreamliner. Meanwhile Airbus's competing A350 looks likely to stay on the drawing board for at least another year.

Airbus, the commercial aircraft unit of Franco-German aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA), is just ahead in deliveries so far this year.

But it lost the highly publicized race for firm plane orders to Boeing last year for the first time since 2000 and does not look likely to win it back this year, even if it unveils some high-profile orders in Paris.

"They (Airbus) are not getting the orders in rapidly enough to stay ahead of Boeing," said Paul Nisbet at aerospace specialists JSA Research. "That could be happening for some time

-- particularly on the widebody side." -- particularly on the widebody side."

Boeing has added 417 firm orders on its books as of the end of May, helped by sales of larger, more expensive planes. Airbus has racked up only 201 orders in the same time as airlines wait for the final design of its new A350 XWB (extra wide body) before committing to firm orders.

"Their problem is they haven't defined many of the major performance parameters on the A350," said Nisbet. "Airbus can't tell you how many people their planes will hold, half a dozen things like that."

787 STAR OF THE SHOW

The Airbus single-aisle A320 family of planes is holding its own against Boeing's 737, but the orders gap is widening in the more lucrative market for widebody, or twin-aisle, planes.

At the end of May, more than half Boeing's orders were for widebody planes, compared with about a quarter for Airbus. The U.S. company is taking 80 percent of the widebody market this year, a troubling figure for Airbus.

That gap could widen in Paris as Boeing's highly anticipated 787 threatens to steal the show. A report in the Seattle Times this week said International Lease Finance Corp., the world's largest plane lessor and an influential buyer, will announce an order for 50 or more 787s in Paris, worth more than $5 billion.

ILFC, owned by insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG.N), already has 22 of the planes on order. It is one of 43 customers that have ordered a total of 584 787s, making the plane the most successful launch in Boeing's history.

The 787, which is set to roll-out of the factory in July and enter service next year, may also snag big orders in Paris from US Airways Group Inc. (LCC.N) and Qatar Airways, either of which would be a hammer blow to the Airbus A350 XWB.