The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Airbus cemented its position last week as the world's biggest plane maker for the fifth straight year, delivering more aircraft and secured more orders than Boeing in 2023. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says that at the same time, Boeing was trying to contain a huge public-relations and safety crisis caused by a harrowing near disaster involving its 737 Max line of jets. In the long-running duel between the two aviation rivals, Airbus has pulled far ahead. "What used to be a duopoly has become two-thirds Airbus, one-third Boeing," said Richard Aboulafia at AeroDynamic Advisory in Washington. "A lot of people, whether investors, financiers or customers, are looking at Airbus and seeing a company run by competent people." The incident involving the 737 Max 9, in which a hole blew open in the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines flight at 16,000 feet, was the latest in a string of safety lapses in Boeing's workhorse aircraft -- including two disasters in 2018 and 2019 -- that are indirectly helping propel the fortunes of the European aerospace giant. As the Federal Aviation Administration widens its scrutiny of Max 9 production, Airbus's edge is likely to sharpen.