Airbus’ chief salesman, John Leahy departed this year’s Paris Air Show slightly more upbeat than he was before about the industry’s outlook and certainly more upbeat than his counterpart at Boeing at the annual event.

Boeing managed to bag only one order – a US$153 million deal with MC Aviation Partners, a leasing subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, for two 737-800 narrow bodies. Airbus, on the other hand, walked away from the showwith orders and commitments for 127 aircraft worth a total of US$12.9 billionincluding orders for 50 A320 single-aisleplanes by Wizz, along with deals fromthree Southeast Asian carriers: VietnamAirlines, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia Xwhich ordered 10 of Airbus’ next-generationwide body, the A350-XWB.

“Considering the predictions of single- digit orders by most of the industry forecasters, I’d say we’re pleased,” Leahy said acknowledging that most of his customers had yet to see any concrete signs of a recovery, but added that crucially the sense of panic that had earlier gripped airline executives had subsided.

“In the fourth quarter of last year, everybody was in a state of shock. It looked like a situation of free fall,” Leahy said. “Nobody then was thinking about anything but survival, and in many cases that meant survival for the next two weeks, not survival for the next 20 years.”