Boeing's £5bn Emirates' deal

Emirates will be taking 30 Boeing 777-300ERs in an order worth more than 5bn.

Emirates is already the world's largest 777 operator and the 300ER is capable of carrying 365 passengers and travelling about 8,000 miles.

Jim Albaugh, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, said at Farnborough yesterday that Boeing would be announcing further aircraft orders this week.

He repeated the warning made by Boeing last week that the first delivery of the "lean and green" Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which arrived at Farnborough yesterday after its maiden transatlantic flight, might be delayed.

Mr Albaugh said the Dreamliner – already more than two years late and due to be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways of Japan by the end of this year – might not be delivered until next year.

"If it slips into 2011 we are only talking about weeks," Mr Albaugh said.

He went on: "We are not happy with the delays we have had but once this plane is in service the people who fly on it will forgive us for it being late."

Mr Albaugh added that Rolls-Royce was one of three aero engine companies that Boeing was talking to about its future plans for the Boeing 737 – regarded as the "workhorse of the sky".

He said Boeing was considering either a completely new 737 or a re-engined version, and that a decision would be made this autumn.

Shortly after the Boeing announcement, the American company's big rival, Airbus, whose planes' wings are made in the UK, produced news of a big order of its own.

Airbus said recently-formed aircraft financing and leasing company Air Lease Corporation had ordered 20 Airbus A321 aircraft and 31 A320s.

The first of the planes will be delivered early next year and deliveries will go on until early 2015.

Boeing also announced an order from GE Capital Aviation Services, the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of aero-engine company GE.

The deal is for 40 Boeing 737-800s and is worth around 2bn.

GE Capital Aviation Services announced it had signed a firm order for 60 Airbus A320 aircraft.