Airbus finding itself in trouble as new orders plunges

Airbus finding itself in trouble as new orders plunges

European aircraft-maker Airbus is finding itself in massive problems as the delays in their planned aircraft launches has prompted airline companies around the world to switch to rivals Boeing for new orders.

Airbus has just announced a sharp fall in new orders. In addition, the company has also confirmed that the shareholders have filed a class action lawsuit against its parent company, EADS.

The company said in a report that they have booked 117 firm orders for passenger jets in the first half of 2006. This is down massively from orders of 276 planes they received in the same period last year.

Even worse is the fact that rivals Boeing have received 480 orders at the end of June. This confirms that Boeing has now overtaken Airbus as the leaders in the aircraft manufacturing market.

The problems escalated when Airbus announced that they might be forced to delay the launch of its £7 billion A350 project. This came after the company had already revealed the much talked about delay to their flagship A380 super-jumbo.