New deals announced for Airbus included an order from Berlin-based airline, Germania and Indonesian national carrier, Garuda. Middle Eastern airline Qatar agreed a deal with Boeing to take early delivery of the  787 jetliner.

"Air travel demand is continuing to rise in the Middle East and it is becoming clear that international demand is returning as the global economy shows signs of recovery," Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said at Farnborough. "Commercial business travel is so dependent on innovation that there will always be opportunities," Al Baker added. "Each downturn is an upturn somewhere else."

Orders at the show are well off the record-breaking $88.7 billion worth of deals announced at Farnborough in 2008, but the gathering has already exceeded the slow orders for commercial planes of around $7 billion at sister show Le Bourget, near Paris, last year.

The International Air Transport Association recently forecast that the global industry would make a small profit of $2.5 billion this year, after a huge loss of $9.4 billion in 2009 - an improvement from its predictions late last year of more losses this year.

"The number of orders shows that the economic recovery is on its way," said Commercial Aviation Consulting analyst Max Sukkhasantikul.