AIRBUS will confirm tomorrow that it has lost the lead in aircraft orders to its rival Boeing after five years of dominance, The Times has learnt.

The beleaguered jet builder will collate its half-year order book at a sales meeting in Toulouse tomorrow and a yawning gap between the two companies will become apparent.

Airbus has definitive orders for 145 to 150 aircraft so far this year. In May it had 105 orders. Boeing has three times as many with 445 (358 in May).

The disparity in sales figures emphasises the difficulties facing Airbus, which announced production delays in its flagship A380 project last month.

Gustav Humbert, Airbus’s chief executive, was replaced last weekend, as was Noël Forgeard, the head of Airbus’s parent company, EADS.

Airbus’s poor sales performance so far this year is in stark contrast to what the company has achieved in recent years.

In 2005 it had 1,055 orders compared with Boeing’s 1,002, the fifth consecutive year that the Toulouse-based company had beaten its American rival.

A City analyst said: “There is no doubt Airbus is struggling and it looks almost certain to lose out to Boeing over 12 months.”

In nearly all aircraft categories, Airbus is lagging behind Boeing. For example, Airbus has no new orders for the A380 superjumbo, which has a list price of £170 million, but Boeing has 19 orders for its closest equivalent model, the 747-8, which has a list price of £150 million.

Scott Babka, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, said: “Part of the problem is that Airbus took a 150-plane order from China at the end of last year. That order has actually only started to come through from individual airlines this year. Arguably, Airbus shot itself in the foot trying to win last year’s order battle.”

Airbus has been plagued with problems in recent weeks after it announced that the A380’s production difficulties would cost at least €500 million (£347 million) in lost earnings.

The share price of EADS is down about 30 per cent since this announcement and six former and current directors are being investigated for selling stock just weeks before ordering an internal investigation into the production problems.

BAE Systems, which owns 20 per cent of Airbus, has also announced that it wants to sell its stake in the aircraft maker.

NM Rothschild & Sons has valued the stake at €2.75 billion, a figure that has stunned many analysts who predicted a price of more than €4 billion.

Investors are concerned that the valuation is so low because the financial situation is worse than expected at Airbus.

Zafer Khan, an analyst with Société Générale, said: “This is what really scares me. Rothschilds had complete access to all the books and there is no reason to doubt what they say it is worth, which certainly puts the focus on why the numbers are so much lower.”

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