After an opening day at the Paris Air Show that saw Airbus announce an impressive amount of orders, Boeing fought back on Tuesday with a raft of deals and the launch of the latest in the line of 787 Dreamliners, the 787-10.
On Monday, Airbus's large A380, which has struggled since its launch, was purchased by Doric Lease Corp, with the firm ordering 20 aircraft with delivery to take place between 2016 and 2021. Monday also saw Lufthansa and International Lease Finance Corp. place a combined order for 150 of the Airbus A320NEOs.
(Read More: Wide Body Planes Soar at Paris Air Show)
However, the Air Show has been dominated by talk of the Airbus A350, which had its maiden flight last Friday and is a direct competitor to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner range launched in 2009, but which faced a temporary grounding earlier this year due to a battery faults.
With Boeing's Dreamliner back in the air, the company today launched its latest model, the 787-10 Dreamliner, along with commitments for 102 of the aircraft already. Jim McNerney, Boeing's CEO, told CNBC on Monday that Dreamliner problems had not affected orders.
"The interesting thing is that the battery incident has not impacted guidance at all, and won't impact our delivery system because we kept producing as we went through the fix," he said.
(Read More: Boeing CEO: 'Highly Confident' in 787 Battery Fix)
Boeing announced that the Air Lease Corporation (ALC) had agreed to purchase 33 airplanes, with the American company ordering three 787-9 and 30 787-10X Dreamliners. ALC expects to take delivery of the 787-10Xs in 2019.
Speaking on the purchase, ALC Chairman and CEO Steven F. Udvar-Hazy said: "Both of these airplanes possess the characteristics our airline customers desire by providing the ideal size, capabilities and economical operating costs for their medium to long-haul markets."
Other orders comes from GE Capital Aviation Services (10 aircraft), International Airlines Group (12), Singapore Airlines (30) and United Airlines (20).
The 787-10 can seat between 300-330 passengers and will fly up to 7,000 nautical miles (12,964km). Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Ray Conner said, in a clear nod to Airbus, ""The 787-10 is 25 percent more efficient than airplanes of its size today and more than 10 percent better than anything being offered by the competition for the future."
(Read More: The Unpredictability of the Paris Air Show
McNerney told CNBC that the Paris Air Show would be all about wide-bodied aircraft and that Boeing was ready to compete.
"Boeing is competing with a very broad product line. 787s, then up above the 787s – the triple 7s, and Airbus has some new products they're bringing to the market, and are trying to sort of find a position in between us at the high end and the low end. It's going to be an interesting fight."
Next move, Airbus.
