Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS held onto its rank as the world's biggest planemaker, beating Boeing Co. in 2007 deliveries and narrowing the gap in orders.

The Toulouse, France-based manufacturer handed over 453 aircraft, 19 more than the year before and 12 more than Boeing, Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said today. Net orders rose to 1,341 versus 1,413 at Chicago-based Boeing, both records.

Airbus built more planes as it endured delays and losses from the A380 double-decker and A350 widebody. Boeing is facing similar holdups with its 787 Dreamliner, with the first flight today pushed back for a second time. Both companies forecast dwindling demand this year as economies slow and Airbus said orders may drop by more than 50 percent.

``A record year is a record year and the Airbus order figures look strong, but the longer-term reality may be rather different,'' said Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace, a Dinan, France-based consulting company.

Enders said Airbus aims to deliver more than 470 planes this year. That may be enough to stop Boeing taking a lead for the first time since 2003 after production of the 787 Dreamliner, with 817 orders, was delayed until early next year.

Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. closed down 1 cent, or 0.1 percent, at 18.57 euros, rebounding from a 7.1 percent decline before the division announced its figures. The stock has slipped 15 percent so far this year, giving a market value of 15.1 billion euros ($22.1 billion), following a 16 percent drop in 2007.

Delayed Debut

Boeing fell 4.7 percent yesterday on concern about the Dreamliner. The aircraft's first flight, originally scheduled for last August, won't now take place until the end of the second quarter, the U.S. company said in a statement today. The stock was up 2.1 percent at $79.53 as of 12:24 p.m. in New York.

Last year's order total was the highest in Airbus's 38-year history and had a value of $157.1 billion at list prices, taking the backlog to about 3,400 aircraft, equal to about six years' work, according to Enders.

``These are enormous numbers,'' the CEO said at a briefing in Toulouse. ``Now it becomes a question of how we manage the backlog.'' Orders were 80 percent higher than 2006's 790, driven by the Asia-Pacific region, India and the Middle East, he said.

Boeing said today's Airbus figures reflected a ``spectacular year'' in 2007 for both manufacturers.

``Looking at their order book and ours, we both did really well,'' said Randy Tinseth, Boeing's marketing chief, in an interview in Seattle. ``Carriers are reaching out for new technology to stay competitive where oil prices are increasing.''

Full-Year Loss

Airbus's orders mask production woes at the company, which is cutting 10,000 jobs and has said it will report a loss for 2007, hurt by delays to its airliners and the A400M military transport plane.

Airbus had a 572 million-euro loss in 2006 compared with a profit of $3.81 billion at Boeing. Parent EADS expects to do no better than break even for last year in terms of earnings before interest and tax when it posts results in March.

``What matters is how solid the pricing regime is, and there Airbus is playing catch-up with Boeing, which is so far ahead,'' Arran Aerospace's McVitie said. Airlines commonly receive discounts of 20-30 percent on orders for commercial passenger planes, particularly in the initial delivery months.

Enders said pricing was stronger last year than in 2006 but wouldn't give details.

Wiring problems put the A380 two years behind schedule at a cost of $6.8 billion, the A400M is running a year late, prompting a 1.1 billion-euro charge, and the new A350 widebody was redesigned five times to win airline approval, pushing deliveries to 2013, four years behind Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

Fresh Boost

Still, the final version of the twin-engine long-range A350 attracted 290 orders last year and today's delays to the Dreamliner, Boeing's first new plane in 15 years, may provide a fresh boost in sales of the Airbus model.

Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said he expects to sell 100 more A350s in 2008 and that the plane is sold out through 2017, four years after first delivery is expected.

AIG Inc's International Lease Finance Corp., the world's largest aircraft lessor, is in talks to add 10 A350s to a previous order and may also buy more than 100 single-aisle planes, Leahy said in an interview.

Orders will drop in 2008, he said, as slowing economic growth crimps demand for travel and prompts airlines to rein in investment. The lag between contracts being placed and planes being built means deliveries will peak at about 600 annually sometime around 2010-2012, Leahy said.

Savings Exceed Goal

A reorganization plan aimed at cutting 2 billion euros from annual costs by 2010 is proceeding ahead of schedule, CEO Enders said, with savings last year amounting to about 500 million euros compared with the 300 million euros targeted.

The Power8 program, revealed last February, includes job cuts and the sale of six Airbus plants. The plan aims to make Airbus competitive at $1.35 to the euro, and the dollar's decline below that level means new savings are needed, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said this month.

Aircraft-industry purchases are denominated in dollars and a decline in the U.S. currency cuts revenue when converted into euros. Most of Airbus's costs are in euros, while Boeing's spending on labor and supplies is in dollars.

Breathing Space

Enders said today the dollar represents an ``existential'' threat in that plane contracts are hedged through 2010, giving Airbus breathing space to move more jobs away from euro-zone countries. The company aims to have 20 percent of its workforce in dollar-linked economies or low-cost countries by 2020.

Boeing earlier this month predicted 480 to 490 deliveries for 2008 instead of the 515-520 previously forecast. That would give a lead of as few as 10 planes over Airbus, based on Enders's projection, even before the 787 revision.

The U.S. company may nevertheless pull ahead in deliveries in coming years once 787 production get under way.

Airbus's output in 2007 totaled 367 single-aisle planes, six of the older A300, 79 A330s and A340s, and one A380, Airbus said in a statement. The company backlog is 3,421 planes.

New contracts at Airbus comprised 913 for the single-aisle A320 series, 405 for the A330, A340 and A350 widebodies, and 23 for the A380. The A350 now has 292 orders and Enders said the plane is definitely viable.

``The orders are amazing given the difficulties we had with the aircraft,'' Enders said in a Bloomberg Television interview. ``It's been a very good year, helped by demand for more fuel- efficient aircraft.''

No Gloating

The CEO said the fresh delays to Boeing's Dreamliner were not an occasion for ``schadenfreude,'' the German expression for deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others. ``We know how it feels,'' he said. ``We've been there.''

Excluding cancellations, Airbus actually won more contracts in 2007 than Boeing, with a gross order intake of 1,458 planes compared with 1,423 at its rival. Cancelled contracts for an earlier version of the A350 were subtracted to produce the net figure. Airbus also lost out to Boeing in net orders in 2006 after coming out ahead the previous four years.

ABN Amro analyst Sandy Morris said Enders's estimate for deliveries this year is on the low side. The company is more likely to hand over 488 aircraft, including 13 A380 superjumbos, he said.

EADS CEO Gallois has set a goal of raising the operating margin to 10 percent of sales before a 2015, he said Jan. 10. In 2006, earnings before interest and tax, excluding goodwill and one-time gains and costs, were equal to 1 percent of revenue.

EADS had set a 10 percent operating-margin target when it was formed in 2000 but eventually dropped the goal.

Hans Peter Ring, chief financial officer of Airbus and EADS, will meet with financial analysts in Seville, Spain, tomorrow to present details on their performance and outlook.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France at aerothman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 16, 2008 15:46 EST