Airbus's summer sales campaign with the new A330neo airliner has triggered warnings of potential oversupply in the wide-body market and of a bruising price battle as the older-generation model undercuts rival Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, Reuters reported. Two weeks after Airbus announced a revamp of its A330 at the Farnborough Airshow, the battle for wide-body sales is heating up as Delta Air Lines seeks to renew part of its fleet. The head of the U.S. carrier is so confident of getting a bargain he began negotiating in public, saying he would take the A330neo for barely a third of its $275 million official price. His "high 70s, low 80s" bid was below the market value of such jets - but not by a massive margin, analysts said. The aerospace industry is focusing on squeezing the maximum life out of existing products following some expensive upsets, including delays and technical problems on the 787 and Airbus's A380 superjumbo. Airbus has upgraded the A330, and Boeing has updated its larger 777, even as both companies pour billions into developing next-generation models such as the 787 and the forthcoming A350. But big jets bring proportionally bigger risks. Now a debate is growing over whether the airline market can absorb the industry's older models at the same time as state-of-the-art new ones. That, analysts say, could have a bearing on pricing and margins right across the industry. "I think particularly in the wide bodies, the market is looking overheated. The herd is running, and the A330neo is the latest example: the market wants the airplane," said Jerrold Lundquist, managing director of the Lundquist Group, who advises private equity investors in aerospace. "There appears to be demand for it now, but it just adds to the ordering." Such warnings come on top of investor concerns that a recent boom in aircraft demand is peaking, causing the sector to lag global stocks by 4 percentage points since Farnborough. Airbus and Boeing, the world's only manufacturers of large jets, both dismiss talk of an aircraft 'bubble'. -- SPA 23:21 LOCAL TIME 20:21 GMT تغريد
