DUBAI, Nov 11: The 10th Dubai Air Show began on Sunday with aircraft manufacturing giants Boeing and Airbus set to go head-to-head in a bruising battle to win new business in the booming Gulf airline sector.

The emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Makt-oum, opened the show, which is hosting 850 exhibitors from 50 countries, a 40 per cent increase from when the two-yearly event was last staged in 2005. More than 140 aircraft are on display at the five-day exhibition, which is the world’s third largest air show.

At the show, Airbus overshadowed US rival Boeing, winning an order from Emirates topping $20 billion — which executives said was the biggest in the European constructor’s history.

The order from the Dubai-owned carrier was for 70 midsized A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body) aircraft and 11 A380 superjumbos.

An upbeat Airbus sales chief John Leahy raised forecast sales of the A350 XWB to “more than 300” by year’s end. He had expected 200 orders at the start of the year.

Boeing, whose B787 Dream-liner is the major competitor to the A350, won a comparatively modest $3.2bn order from Emirates for 12 of its B777-300s, bringing the Dubai airline’s total outlay for new planes to over $23bn.—AFP