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CHERYL GLASER: Airbus and Boeing have been pulling out the stops to wow customers at the Farnborough air show near London this week. They’ve set their sights on one buyer in particular. Jason Paur explains.

JASON PAUR: This spring, Steven Udvar-Hazy single-handedly forced the Airbus A350 back to the drawing board when he commented it wasn’t what the industry was looking for.

Hazy’s company leases airplanes to airlines worldwide and he is considered the industry’s most influential buyer.

Yesterday Airbus was a little happier when Hazy said the company’s new A350 design was more to his liking.

Aerospace analyst Scott Hamilton:

SCOTT HAMILTON: I think that Hazy did more or less endorse the airplane. It was a good thing. If he came out and said ‘nope, they still need to go back to the drawing board again,’ that would have been a major blow to the project.

The bad news for Airbus? Just before Hazy’s encouraging comments he signed a $1.2 billion deal for 10 new airplanes . . . from rival Boeing.

I’m Jason Paur for Marketplace.