Airbus's orders in the first 10 months of the year dropped 34 percent to 675 planes as declining traffic and airline bankruptcies forced cancellations on the world's largest maker of commercial aircraft.

Deliveries from January 1 to October 31 totaled 391 planes, Toulouse, France-based Airbus said in a statement last Friday, compared with 1,021 plane orders and 374 deliveries the company reported a year earlier, Bloomberg News reported. Orders for 119 airliners were scrapped in the period, of which 71 were withdrawn in October, Airbus said.

Record oil prices, the global credit crisis and slowing economic growth have prompted a decline in air travel. About 30 carriers have failed or filed for bankruptcy protection this year, leading to order cancellations. Skybus Airlines Inc, a United States low-cost carrier that collapsed in April, canceled an order for 65 A319s last month, Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said.

"We will see more cancellations, although the biggest effect are normally deferrals," said Nick Cunningham, an analyst at London-based Evolution Securities. "Production rate will peak in 2009 and then starting to slow down but it could happen earlier, with possibly very painful cash-flow consequences."

Other cancellations in October were for six A318 models, Airbus's Schaffrath said, without identifying the customer. BOC Aviation is taking over Skybus's order for 17 A320 models, the Singapore-based lessor said.

According to the International Air Transport Association, airline-passenger traffic had the first monthly decline in September since 2003. "The recession is deepening more than we expected, and the worst is yet to come," said IATA Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Bisignani. Losses for the industry "may be even deeper than our forecast of US$5.2 billion for this year," he added.

European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co, Airbus's parent, fell 12.5 cents, or 1 percent, to 12.43 euros (US$ 15.91) in Paris trading last Friday, giving the company a market value of 10.1 billion euros.

Airbus has a full-year order target of 850 aircraft. It signed a firm order for 61 jetliners from Grupo Marsans, the Spanish owner of Aerolineas Argentinas SA last week.

The order includes four A380s and 10 A350s.

(Shanghai Daily November 10, 2008)