Boeing is soaring past its rivals as it books new orders at a rapid rate. The aerospace giant's shares rose to a new 52 week high on Nov. 21 after Korean Air announced plans to buy 25 planes from the company for about $5.5 billion.

The South Korean carrier said in a statement Nov. 21 that it expects Boeing to deliver the planes between 2009 and 2019. Korean Air is buying various types of aircraft, including ten 777-300ERs, five 737-900/700s, five 747-8 Freighters, and five 777-200 Freighters. The airline also has options to buy four 777-300ERs, two 747-8Fs and two 737-900ERs.

After the news, Boeing's share price rose more than 2% to $90.96 per share on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier Nov. 21, the shares hit a high of $91.01 per share.

"We view this as a continued demonstration of Boeing's competitive advantage, given recent production and other problems at Airbus," said Standard & Poor's Corp. analyst Richard Tortoriello said in a research note. (S&P, like BusinessWeek.com, is owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies.)

Tortoriello thinks Boeing is on track for a 2006 order book that is at or near the record 1028 planes that were ordered in 2005. He adds that deliveries will remain strong through at least 2008, but customers will not make as many orders in 2007.

Some of the recently ordered planes will replace passenger aircraft that Korean Air is converting into freighters. The order overall is meant to upgrade the airline's fleet with improved capacity and efficiency. It will "enable us to provide our customers with the highest level of service in line with international standards," said Korean Air CEO Yang Ho Cho in a press release.

This isn't the first hefty deal for Boeing recently. The company said on Nov. 9 that it won a contract to build 141 helicopters for the U.S. Air Force's search and rescue program in the coming years. Only two days earlier, Memphis-based FedEx Express, a unit of FedEx Corp., had said it is switching from Airbus to buy at least 15 new aircraft from Boeing.

Boeing's rival Airbus has been struggling to deliver on its promises to customers. Airbus has faced a range of production challenges; in a recent example on Oct. 3, the company warned customers about another delay in its delivery of the A380 and that the first one would arrive in Oct. 2007.