The overbooking of orders by both Airbus and Boeing for short-haul jets, their main cash generators and the mainstay of their production programmes, has helped cushion them so far from the full impact of the recession.

Airbus, the commercial aircraft division of Franco-German EADS, Europe’s leading aerospace and defence group, is still hoping that its deliveries this year will be at or close to the record 483 achieved in 2008, even in the midst of the worst global recession for more than 70 years.