LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Airbus and Boeing were set to announce several billion dollars’ worth of plane orders on Monday as industry heavyweight Qatar Airways leaped in to kickstart a rain-sodden opening to the Paris Air Show.

The Gulf carrier placed an order for six Boeing 777-300ER wide-body jets worth $1.7 billion at list prices, a day after Airbus unveiled plans to boost the range of the future competing A350, of which Qatar is the biggest customer.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Airbus and Boeing were set to announce several billion dollars’ worth of plane orders on Monday as industry heavyweight Qatar Airways leaped in to kickstart a rain-sodden opening to the Paris Air Show.

The Gulf carrier placed an order for six Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 777-300ER wide-body jets worth $1.7 billion at list prices, a day after Airbus unveiled plans to boost the range of the future competing A350, of which Qatar is the biggest customer.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Fancy travelling from Paris to Tokyo in two and a half hours? Do you yearn for the Concorde days?

Aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of planemaker Airbus, thinks it has the answer — a hypersonic jet that flies above the atmosphere, yet takes off from a regular runway.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Fancy traveling from Paris to Tokyo in less than three hours? Do you yearn for the Concorde days?

Aerospace group EADS, owner of planemaker Airbus, thinks it has come up with the answer — a hypersonic jet that flies above the atmosphere yet still takes off from a regular runway. “It is not a Concorde but it looks like a Concorde, showing that aerodynamics of the 1960s were already very smart,” Jean Botti, EADS Chief Technical officer said.

LE BOURGET, France, June 19 (Reuters) – Fancy travelling
from Paris to Tokyo in less than three hours? Do you yearn for
the Concorde days?

Aerospace group EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of planemaker Airbus,
thinks it has come up with the answer — a hypersonic jet that
flies above the atmosphere yet still takes off from a regular
runway.
“It is not a Concorde but it looks like a Concorde, showing
that aerodynamics of the 1960s were already very smart,” Jean
Botti, EADS Chief Technical officer said.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Europe’s delayed and over-budget military transport plane suffered yet another embarrassing setback on Sunday when manufacturer Airbus was forced to curtail its debut appearance at the Paris Air Show.

The Airbus (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) A400M military airlifter suffered a gearbox problem in one of its powerful turbo-props days before the world’s largest air show and will not now be able to carry out its daring display routine in front of aviation enthusiasts.

LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) – Europe needs to co-operate on the next generation of military drones or it will repeat costly divisions which led to rival combat jets competing for the same orders, aerospace group EADS warned on Sunday.

The warning on the eve of the Paris Air Show follows a decision by Britain and France to push other defense companies into working on an armed drone, which could leave an alternative project in which EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is involved out in the cold.

PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) – Airbus has confirmed plans to
delay availability of some A350 aircraft to allow time to
develop a bigger engine, opening up a second front in a market
share battle with Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on the eve of the Paris Air
Show.

The European planemaker is bowing to customer demand for a
more effective challenge to Boeing’s 777-300ER long-range
airliner, a 365-seater which has notched up sales of more than
500 planes compared with 75 for the largest type of A350.

PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) – At the best hotels, the new luxury is the old luxury: service.

In the post-recession world, high-end hoteliers’ investments are shifting away from fancy freebies like lotion and soap and toward expert service that reflects a real understanding of the guest’s preferences, executives told the Reuters Global Luxury and Fashion Summit this week.

PARIS/NEW YORK (Reuters) – At the best hotels, the new luxury is the old luxury: service.

In the post-recession world, high-end hoteliers’ investments are shifting away from fancy freebies like lotion and soap and toward expert service that reflects a real understanding of the guest’s preferences, executives told the Reuters Global Luxury and Fashion Summit this week.