The battle between Boeing Co. and Airbus is front and center at the at the Paris Air Show and Boeing has received a boost from Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp., which has pledged to buy 63 Boeing jets, including 50 of the company’s flagship 787 Dreamliners.

The order makes ILF, which is the world’s largest airline leasing company, the biggest customer for the carbon-fiber commercial jets. Chicago-based Boeing said it has 74 firm orders so far for the $140 million jets.

Boeing’s main competitor, European Aeronaut Defence and Space Co.’s Airbus, remains the overall sales leader at the Paris Air Show, which is being held at Le Bourget Airport. To date, Airbus says it has currently has 163 firm orders.

“I can tell you with full confidence that Airbus is back,” Airbus co-Chief Executive Louis Gallois said at the show.

In addition to the dogfight for supremacy of the commercial aviation skies, Boeing and a Northrop Grumman Corp.-led team that includes Airbus are vying for a $40 billion contract, which could easily be worth $100 billion over its lifetime; to replace the U.S. Air Force’s decaying air-refueling tanker fleet. Airbus and Northrop said Monday that the first tanker, which is built around the Airbus A-350 fuselage, should begin final assembly this week in France.

ILF is a privately held subsidiary of New York-based insurance firm American International Group.