Boeing Overtakes Airbus in '06, Report Says

Boeing sold more aircraft in 2006 than rival Airbus for the first time in five years, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

The newspaper said in an advance of an article to appear on Wednesday that Boeing has published data showing 904 new orders as of Dec. 20 versus 714 for Airbus, a figure including 635 new orders at the end of November plus new orders published in December.

A spokeswoman for Airbus was quoted in the advance text as saying 2006 will be "the second best year in the company's history for orders and deliveries" regardless of the end of year ranking.

Boeing last sold more aircraft than Airbus in 2000.

According to company Web sites and Reuters calculations last week, Boeing had 875 new orders by Dec. 21 against Airbus' 694.