The Farnborough International Airshow is set to start on Monday and on that backdrop, giant aircraft producers Boeing and Airbus are waiting in the wings while equally hoping that huge contracts would come their way amidst the emergence of much stiffer competition between the two rival companies.

And the prospect this year foretells encouraging promises as airlines in both Asia and the Middle East are on the hunt for fresher fleets to meet the mounting travel demands from their respective regions, with the aviation industry's biggest trade shows being utilised as the platform for major deal announcements.

The Wall Street Journal has earlier reported that Dubai's Emirates airline would add up 30 more Boeing long-range 777 jets to the 32 A380 superjumbo jetliners it has ordered from Airbus only a month ago, effectively refreshing its existing fleet and registering an industry record deal.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Jim Albaugh declared that the air trade fare would definitely witness some big orders to be announced by both Airbus and Boeing, noting that increasing competition has been dogging the two aerospace giants, specifically on their smallest civilian plane offerings.

Mr Albaugh said that a duopoly has existed for some time now but he asserted that change would soon be introduced "certainly in the single-aisle market place as plane manufacturers start clawing in the market such as Comac in China, Embraer in Brazil, Bombardier in Canada, Mitsubishi in Japan and you may have somebody from Russia."

He said that Boeing is conceding that these upcoming companies would gain some success in developing airplanes as he noted that "the first airplane might not be a great one but by the time they do their second and third one they'll probably have very competitive airplanes in the market."

Mr Albaugh expressed confidence though that such emerging competition would only better the status and performance of Boeing as he added that "what we're trying to do is to make sure that we have the best value offer in every market that we are in."

Boeing has pinned its hopes for a much better future on its mid-sized 787 Dreamliner and the Farnborough fair would be surely regaled by the fuel-efficient jet which made its maiden flight out of the United States on Sunday.

The long-haul aircraft has been plagued though by production delays but Mr Albaugh gave assurance that Boeing would deliver the 330-passenger capacity Dreamliner to its initial client, All Nippon Airways, by January.

On the other hand, Airbus is trumpeting its own long-distance offering, the A350 XWB (Extra Wide Body), as it added that the long-anticipated A400M military transport plane would make a flypast at Farnborough, marking too the unveiling of new military aircrafts for the appreciation of governments across the globe.

Experts though are predicting that major deals may not be sealed so soon as governments were being compelled to reduce their defence budgets in order to alleviate the burden of mounting public deficits.