Airshow sees £7.9bn of plane orders

Before most show attendees had even had breakfast, government-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland acknowledged being the mystery buyer of more than 5bn in new passenger jets.

Leasing subsidiary RBS Aviation Capital put its name to orders for 52 Airbus A320 family planes and 43 Boeing 737 family aircraft, all of which had been previously listed on the planemakers' books as sales to unnamed buyers.

"We always buy when we think there is demand and sell when we see no demand from investors," Peter Barrett, the chief executive of RBS Aviation Capital, said. ""It reflects the underlying long-term trend that there is demand for leased airplanes, particularly for the narrow-body workhorses of the industry (the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737)."

Add to that orders from the likes of Garuda, Thai Air, Qantas and Qatar Airways and manufacturers were ready to improve their forecasts for 2010 orders.

"We've raised our orders forecast twice. We might do it a third time," Boeing commercial boss Jim Albaugh said.

Airbus sales chief John Leahy said that Airbus would surpass its own forecast for up to 300 orders this year as well, possibly hitting 400.

"The civil side has had a good week but the worry remains that the mature markets of Europe and North America are not the ones that have been committing to new aircraft," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners.

The military segment of the aviation industry is still at the show, and still selling despite a lack of public attention. In the suburbs of the air show, at the far end of the grounds away from most of the cameras, smaller contractors are working aggressively to drum up business from Africa and elsewhere.

At the same time, though, the Western majors are struggling with the new realities of defence spending.