Boeing and the Big Three Gulf stole the show at this year's Dubai Air Show, held between Sunday Nov. 17 and Thursday Nov. 21. Officially launching its 777X program, Boeing made a big splash on day one of the air show, securing 225 firm orders of the jet from the Big Three Middle Eastern carriers; Emirates' orders alone totaled 150 aircraft. Including Lufthansa's 34, orders for the 777X now total 259, worth over $95 billion. Boeing also received orders for Dreamliners and 737 MAXs, including their 1000th 787 order, thanks to Etihad, bringing their air show total up to 367 airplanes, with a list price valuation of $100.5 billion.
Boeing may have taken the spotlight Sunday in Dubai, but they weren't the only ones on stage. That same day, Emirates placed an order for another 50 Airbus A380s, bringing their total orders to 140 of the massive superjumbos. Despite being the largest A380 order ever, worth $20 billion, it was also the first order placed for the jet all year. Airbus also secured a substantial order from Etihad: 36 A320NEOs, an A330F and 50 A350s. In total, Airbus secured 162 commercial aircraft orders worth $44 billion, mostly earned in the first days of the air show.
Albeit small, Bombardier had their own day to take the headlines in Dubai, scoring sparse orders on Tuesday. Most of their orders were for their Q400s, but also a few for their new flagship jet, the CSeries. The biggest order, from Iraqi Airways, brought in $387 million (plus $1.2 billion in option) for five CS300 aircraft and 11 more options. All together, the Canadian manufacturer put 22 new entries in their order book, and $1.75 billion in their bank accounts.
What the Dubai air show really showed the world is that the Gulf Big Three are at the helm. While manufacturers would have preferred to have their order announcements spread out over the week, but the Gulf Three had other plans. In a competition to see who could announce their order for the 777X, Etihad pushed their announcement up an hour so they could beat out Emirates and Qatar. The three carriers placed orders worth $84 billion in a short 15 minutes. More than half of the money exchanged for commercial aircraft at the air show came from Qatar, Etihad, or Emirates. Their eagerness to fill their order books and empty their fat checkbooks shows that the Gulf Three are here to stay.
