On June 18, Airbus racked up a series of big orders at the opening of the world's biggest air show, snatching some early limelight from US rival Boeing.

With the manufacturers' intense competition again expected to be a dominant theme of the weeklong show at Le Bourget, north of Paris, both looked to make a splash right from the start, with billions of dollars worth of orders announced.

Airbus booked orders from US Airways, Qatar Airlines, Emirates, Jazeera Airways and Nouvelair for a raft of planes, including its problem-plagued A350 and superjumbo A380 models.

On June 18, Airbus sales chief John Leahy predicted the planemaker will land more than 280 orders over the week - airlines often reserve big announcements for the show to ensure maximum impact.

At the last Le Bourget show in 2005, Airbus announced orders worth US$33.5 billion, double Boeing's US$15 billion, based on list prices - which are usually discounted for the deals.

US Airways Group was one of the first to announce an order, snapping up 60 of Airbus's A320 single-aisle aircraft and 32 widebody aircraft. It also increased its previously announced order of 20 A350s by two to 22 A350XWBs in both the 800 and larger 900 series configuration.

The A320s will replace Boeing 737-300/400s, which will be eliminated from the fleet, the carrier said. It added that it expects to take delivery of the first A350-800 in 2014, becoming the North American launch customer for the fleet type.

In another major order for the Toulouse-based company, GE Commercial Aviation Services ordered 60 of the A320 family aircraft in a deal worth around US$4.4 billion at list prices.

Qatar ordered 80 A350XWBs, three A380s and three A320 family aircraft. The A350 order was a confirmation of Qatar's earlier commitments to buy the 80 jets. Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the order for the A350s is worth US$16 billion.

Wiring and other technical problems are behind a costly two-year delay in delivery of the A380. The holdup is set to wipe US$6.2 billion off the profit of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense & Space over the next four years.

Emirates is by far the biggest single customer - it initially ordered 43 A380s and took another four in May. Emirates is believed to have obtained significantly improved financial terms for these aircraft and the latest batch of eight.

Jazeera Airways signed an order for 30 single-aisle A320 jets worth between US$2.1 billion and US$2.4 billion.

Another two orders for the A320 aircraft came from Nouvelair, a Tunisian charter airline.

Emirates ordered an additional eight A380s, a deal estimated to be worth about US$2.5 billion. The latest order brings to 55 the number of A380s ordered by the Dubai-based airline.

However, Emirates remained undecided about whether it will sign up for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner or its wide-bodied Airbus rival, the A350WXB.

"We've got some talking to do to both Boeing and Airbus with regard to the commercial terms of the deal, but I think we're in a good position to make an aircraft decision in the next few months," said Emirates president Tim Clark.

He said the carrier would select only one of the aircraft, rather than buying some of each.

Airbus was forced last year to launch a costly redesign of the planned A350 after airlines scorned its earlier model - resulting in the extra-wide-body or XWB model - and is having to renegotiate existing orders.

Prior to June 18's orders, Airbus had only 13 firm orders for the midsize, long-range plane, compared with 584 orders for Chicago-based Boeing's Dreamliner - the first commercial jet made of light, sturdy, carbon-fiber composites instead of aluminum.

Scott Carson, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said on June 18 the Dreamliner was on track for test flights in August or September, and delivery to its first customers in May 2008.

Carson also announced that GE Commercial Aviation Services had ordered six of its 777 freighters, worth US$1.42 billion.

The order takes the number of 777s ordered by GECAS to 39, including 14 freighters.

In another deal for Boeing, Jakarta-based Lion Air ordered an additional 40 737-900ER planes valued at more than US$3 billion. Away from the rivalry between Boeing and Airbus, Rolls-Royce received the largest ever firm engine order for its civil aerospace business from Qatar with a US$5.6 billion order for Trent XWB engines to power Qatar's new fleet of 80 Airbus A350XWBs.