New orders for Boeing and Airbus at Farnborough

Firm plane orders at the show, the biggest on the aviation calendar, reached $55.2 billion on the third day of the event, with European manufacturer Airbus ahead its U.S. rival Boeing Co. with orders for 241 planes worth $36.95 billion at list prices.

Chicago-based Boeing Co. used a previously registered, but unidentified, order from Malaysia Airlines for 35 737-800s to boost its show tally to 152 orders worth some $16.79 billion at catalog prices.

Orders for Embraer, the world's third largest plane maker, and Russian manufacturer Sukhoi rounded out the total.

Airlines usually negotiate discounts to the official list prices for planes, and while all the deal makers are declining to comment, analysts expect the discounts to have been deeper than usual this time round with soaring oil prices and the credit crunch crimping demand from many quarters.

With fears ahead of Farnborough of a mere trickle of orders, Asian and Middle Eastern airlines and leasing companies have stepped to the fore, pushing the combined Boeing and Airbus total to within a more respectable distance of the 506 orders the pair took at the Le Bourget air show last year.

Carriers from those regions are banking on a degree of insulation from the global credit squeeze and expected growth in infrastructure and tourism to justify their purchases, while the leasing companies are relying on the likelihood that many carriers elsewhere will be keen to budget by renting, rather than buying, planes until the economic climate improves.

South Korea's Asiana Airlines kicked off orders on Wednesday with a deal for 30 of its medium capacity, long-range A350 XWB jets for a catalog price of $7.2 billion before discounts. The airline also took an option for another ten A350 jets.

Fellow Asian carrier Malaysia Airlines announced an order for 35 Boeing 737-800s valued at $2.6 billion at list prices. It also booked purchase rights for 20 more aircraft. Boeing said the order had already been registered in its books as an unidentified order for several weeks.

The carrier said the purchase would allow it to expand to points that were previously not economically viable.