Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

A firm order announced on February 27 for six A330-200s from Korean Air helped ease the sting of an exceedingly sluggish sales year so far for Airbus, but it didn’t erase the considerable pressure felt by both of the Western world’s major OEMs to deliver on promises to maintain production rates, as analysts and suppliers closely monitor how each react to a growing list of delivery deferrals.&nbsp; In fact, until the latest Korean Air order, both companies had announced more cancellations than firm orders, a development that certainly confirms the lack of confidence the world’s airlines and financiers have carried into the early going this year.
So far this year Boeing has collected firm orders for 19 Next Generation 737s–one from Alaska Airlines, 13 from Ryanair and five from Southwest Airlines. But the cancellation of 32 B787s–including 16 from Dubai-based leasing company LCAL and 15 from Russia’s S7–resulted in a net order decline as of February 24 of 13 airplanes, the most recent involving a single corporate configured 787 ordered by Hong Kong real-estate developer Joseph Lau. Meanwhile, with the most recent order for six A330-200s from Korean Air, Airbus had logged firm orders for 12 airplanes–including a pair of A380s from the Korean flag carrier and four A321s from Turkish Airlines–as of today. At the end of January it reported cancellations for the same number, but at the time of this posting had not released cancellation figures for February.
Last year Airbus logged a net order total of 777 airplanes, including more than 250 during that January and February. Boeing finished 2008 with net orders for 662, including a total of 190 during the first two months of the year.

2009 Order Tallies a Sign of the Times

A firm order announced on February 27 for six A330-200s from Korean Air helped ease the sting of an exceedingly sluggish sales year so far for Airbus, but 

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