Boeing set to overtake Airbus as top aircraft supplier The Boeing 787 Dreamliner came to market late last year after major delays, boosting the company's results. Photograph: Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images Boeing is on course to recapture the lead in annual aircraft production for the first time since 2002 after overtaking Airbus in deliveries in the first three months of this year. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus said on Friday its deliveries grew by 10% compared with the first quarter of last year, to 131 aircraft. On Thursday, its US competitor Boeing announced first-quarter deliveries of 137 commercial planes, up 32% from a year earlier. Both are increasing production of their best-selling medium-haul models, the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, to record levels in order to tap rising demand led by Asia. But Boeing has edged in front of its European rival with two models that had encountered major production delays but which came to the market at the end of last year: the 787 Dreamliner and the latest enhanced version of its 747. The catchup effect is expected to help push Boeing ahead of Airbus in deliveries in 2012 after a nine-year winning streak for Airbus, which is owned by aerospace firm EADS. Boeing delivered six 747-8 stretched jumbos and five of the new carbon-composite Dreamliners. Airbus delivered four A380 superjumbos (all in January and February) and started assembling the first A350, its answer to the 787, this week. The first A350 will take shape in its Toulouse factory but is destined to be shaken apart in static ground tests. Assembly of the first flying A350 will start in the summer. The A350 is due to enter service in mid-2014. After sweeping the board in 2011 with sales of a revamped and more efficient model of the A320 to help airlines save fuel, Airbus has also fallen behind Boeing in new orders this year. Both manufacturers get paid the bulk of their revenues when aircraft are delivered. The two companies dominate a global aircraft market estimated at $100bn (£63bn) annually and are gearing up for more demand from emerging markets while facing uncertainties over aircraft financing available to their airline customers. Airbus has meanwhile warned it may lose some of its Chinese market as a result of a row between the European Union and a group of nations including China over rules for reducing aircraft emissions.