While twin-aisle, or widebody aircraft dominated order books for Airbus and Boeing in 2011, this year will be all about single aisle — narrowbody — planes in the Middle East as well as globally, according to a senior Boeing executive. \"Single-aisles across the board will be the bulk of the order activity for both manufacturers this year,\" Marty Bentrott, Senior Vice-President of International Sales at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told Gulf News. While Airbus beat Boeing last year in order numbers riding on its new A320neos, Boeing is fast acquiring orders for its single-aisle equivalent, the 737 MAX, due to enter service by 2017, and for which the US planemaker already has over 1,000 commitments, according to Bentrott. The two plane manufacturers are currently wrestling to dominate the market for narrowbody jets (150 seats) worth $2 trillion (Dh7.34 trillion) over 20 years. Commenting on the Middle Eastern carriers, he said: \"I think the opportunities will remain predominantly in the single-aisle aircraft type this year. That\'s because if you look at the backlogs of many of the customers in the region — they are backlogs for new single-aisle aircraft except for the recent business Airbus did with Qatar Airways. \"So I think some of the airlines will start to look at choices around the 737 MAX or alternatively the A320neo. And that was one of the reasons why at the Dubai Airshow we wanted to really highlight the 737 MAX to continue to broaden the exposure of the marketing in the region to that product.\" Demand for widebody jets Asked if Middle Eastern carriers will look to place any more orders for wide-body planes than already placed, Bentrott said: \"It will be interesting to see what happens here in 2012. When you look at commitments for the widebody aircraft, I think the bulk of those commitments has been made. So I don\'t anticipate large quantities of orders… unless maybe there is new product availability out there.\" Last year saw Airbus claiming victory over Boeing, beating the US planemaker in annual orders by the widest ever margin. The European planemaker grabbed 64 per cent of new orders globally, mainly owing to its revamped and a more fuel-efficient version of A320 — the A320neo. Airbus said it won orders for 1,608 planes last year, or a net total of 1,419 after cancellations. Boeing, meanwhile, reported 921 sales in the year, or a net total of 805 after cancellations. Asked what 2012 holds for Boeing and if the planemaker will be able to beat Airbus in orders this year, Bentrott said: \"We don\'t really speculate in terms of numbers, but if you think about the fact that we have over a thousand commitments for the 737 MAX plus other business opportunities in the marketplace — assuming the global economic environment stays in reasonable shape - I think 2012 should be a pretty positive year for all of us.\" And looking at the January numbers, Boeing seems to be going all out already to claim the top slot this year, as it sold 150 aircraft in the month while Airbus lagged with 91 planes. In terms of Boeing\'s performance in the Middle East, Bentrott said last year turned out to be \"more robust in actual order activity than I had really anticipated going into the year. \"That\'s because when you look at the backlog of many of the customers here in the region, there is a lot of airplanes out there. In fact, we had over 350 planes on order from customers in the region.\" Airbus, meanwhile, targets 570 deliveries this year, up from 534 last year, while Boeing has predicted a strong upswing in deliveries to around 585 to 600 jets in 2012 against 477 in 2011. \"It\'s very clear in terms of what drove the numbers on the Airbus side. It was all the A320neo orders . So being out first in the marketplace with the A320neo at the beginning of the year allowed them to compile approximately a thousand commitments at the time of the Paris Airshow [held in June 2011],\" Bentrott said. Trailing behind Airbus He added that as Airbus turns those commitments into firm orders, \"we\'re just too far behind. We have a lot of opportunities in play for the 737 MAX and quite a few commitments for the airplane, but we have to turn those into firm orders. And I don\'t think you will see the bulk of those happening until sometime this year. That\'s going to be one of our key objectives this year.\" Asked if Boeing feared any cancellations from any of its Middle East customers this year, Bentrott said: \"Boeing is not really concerned about the big established Gulf carriers, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Saudia. Qatar is scheduled to get its first 787 Dreamliner here in June.\" He was quick to add that the planemaker is going to have to watch Gulf Air closely. The beleaguered Bahraini national carrier has been under pressure to restructure. \"They have been talking about maybe restructuring the business. Last year we helped them with that restructuring. We ended up cancelling eight of the 24 787s that they had on order. Fortunately, the 787s that they are committed to are out a number of years,\" Bentrott said. \"Our competition is going to have to look at that more carefully because they have a number of airplanes they are supposed to deliver to Gulf Air near term,\" he added. Speaking of new potential markets for Boeing in the Middle East, Bentrott said Kuwait makes for an interesting opportunity, \"not that we have a lot of backlog there but I think if the airline ever gets through its privatisation process, it\'d have a big opportunity for fleet renewal.\" Boeing has a backlog in Iraq, according to Bentrott and the 737s start delivering there the middle of next year. \"So we are not really concerned about that as yet in terms of being able to deliver on the backlog,\" Bentrott said. Raising finance Boeing sees the availability of financing in some markets although Europeans have pulled back in terms of aircraft financing, according to Bentrott, who said that the key role of Boeing Capital Corporation, a part of The Boeing Company, is to help ensure that there is financing available to deliver planes to customers. Asked if any of Boeing\'s Middle East customers were in talks with the planemaker for financing options, he said: \"I just have to point to the solid business models and financial performance of the key airlines in the region that makes us less worried about having to provide alternative Boeing-backed financing to these customers. Nor has anyone approached us. \"But if Emirates did, we would have no problems in terms of supporting backstop financing for upcoming deliveries,\" he added. Backstop financing is a situation where the airline comes up with a downpayment of 20 per cent, and the manufacturer covers the rest. \"But at this particular point in time, we haven\'t been asked for help. The airlines continue to be able to find financing in the marketplace.\"