Airbus achieved record aircraft orders last year but fell behind its US rival Boeing for the second successive year, as global demand from airlines surged to a new peak.

The European aircraft maker, a subsidiary of EADS, the Franco-German aerospace and defence group, said on Wednesday it had won 1,341 net new orders (after cancellations and conversions by customers from one aircraft type to another), a 70 per cent increase from the 790 achieved in 2006 and well ahead of its previous peak of 1,055 set in 2005.