The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus consolidated its global leadership in terms of orders and deliveries of commercial airplanes in 2004, the Toulouse-based company said Wednesday. With 320 aircraft delivered last year, Airbus represented 53 per cent of the worldwide market of all deliveries of aircraft with more than 100 seats. The number of deliveries exceeded the company's expectations for the year, which Airbus had foreseen to match those of 2003, when it delivered 305 aircraft. It also accounted for turnover of "slightly more than 20 billion euros" (26.2 billion dollars), Airbus said in a statement. In terms of orders, Airbus also remained market leader with 370 new firm orders valued at 34 billion dollars "and representing 57 per cent of the market in terms of units". The result is a significant improvement over 2003 when Airbus registered 284 firm orders. "These results are very encouraging and confirm that the market is slowly recovering from the downturn of the first half of the decade," Airbus head Noel Forgeard said.
