Paris - European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said Thursday that it had registered 11 net orders for its planes in the first four months of 2009. The EADS subsidiary said that between January 1 and April 30 it had written 30 orders and recorded 19 cancellations.
Most of the cancellations, 14 in all, concerned the company's mid- range A320 family, which seats between 100 and 200 passengers.
However, Airbus was well on track to meet its goal for 2009 in deliveries, with 162 deliveries registered between the beginning of the year and the end of April. This year Airbus is looking to match its record total of 483 deliveries from 2008.
On Wednesday, the company announced it was curtailing deliveries of its A380 superjumbo airliner from the planned 18 to 14, because some of its customers are unable to pay for the plane due to the effects of the economic crisis on air travel.
Among the cancellations this year was Korean Airways' annulation of its order for two A380s. According to the Airbus website, an A380 aircraft costs between 317.2 million and 337.4 million dollars.
