Orders and deliveries

Order book

The order book at December 31, 2008, at constant exchange rates, was £55.5 billion (2007 £45.9 billion) with strong growth across all divisions.

This included firm business that had been announced but for which contracts had not yet been signed of £6.1 billion (2007 £7.1 billion).

In civil aerospace, it is common for a customer to take options for future orders in addition to firm orders placed. Such options are excluded from the order book.

In defence aerospace, long-term programmes are often ordered for only one year at a time. In such circumstances, even though there may be no alternative engine choice available to the customer, only the contracted business is included in the order book.

Aftermarket services

Aftermarket services agreements, including TotalCare packages, represented 26 per cent of the order book, having increased by £1.4 billion in the year. These are long-term contracts where only the first seven year’s revenue is included in the order book.