November 19, 2021: -Airbus kicked off the 2021 Dubai Air Show with a bang, landing massive deals from day one.

The French aerospace manufacturer had amassed 408 announced orders and commitments by the show’s fourth day on Wednesday, while its American counterpart Boeing trailed with 101. Airbus and Boeing are the two largest aerospace companies by revenue in the world.

The order numbers so far from the first significant air show since the Covid-19 pandemic began are positive for aviation and travel, which suffered devastating losses for much of the previous 18 months. “We view orders for new aircraft as positive for the recovery of the commercial aerospace industry,” Morgan Stanley said in a research note on Wednesday.

Airbus scored its big win on day one of the air show, with an order for 255 of its narrow-body A321neo and A321XLR jets from American private equity firm Indigo Partners, buying planes for low-cost carriers such as Frontier, Wizz Air, Jet smart, and Volaris.

It then notched a letter of intent from Air Lease Corp, set to be finalized in the further months, for 111 aircraft across the Airbus product range: 55 A321neos, 25 A220-300s, 20 A321XLRs, seven A350F freighters, and four A330neos.

The popularity of narrow-body jets at this year’s air show came as a surprise to a few analysts, saying the Middle East event is more known for orders of widebody planes used for longer-haul flights.

On the military side, Airbus sold two A330 Multi Role Tanker means of transport, and aerial refueling tanker aircraft, to the UAE Air Force and Air Defense and clinched a new export order for two A400M airlifters from the Indonesian Ministry of Defense.

On Tuesday, Boeing saw relief with a large order of 72 of its 737 Max from the new Indian airline Akasa Air. It also had success with freighters, with demands for 11 of its 737-800BCF cargo planes from aircraft leasing company Icelease, nine converted 767-300BCF freighters from DHL, and charges for two of its long-range 777F freighters from Emirates SkyCargo.

The American aerospace giant also received four passenger planes and freighters from Air Tanzania and three of its widebody 777-300 passenger jets from UAE-based aviation services provider Sky One FZE.

Cargo flights and converted freighters are a hot sub-sector of the aviation industry as e-commerce booms and air shipment grows. Cargo is the air traffic segment that went above 2019 levels. For Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates Airline alone, cargo operations in its latest half-year earnings were robust, which sees a 39% increase and bringing the business to 90% of the volume it had pre-pandemic.