Visitors look at models of an Airbus A380 and an Airbus A350 plane at the Beijing International Aviation Expo in Beijing on September 19, 2017.

A spree of selling in the final weeks of 2017 has helped Airbus surge past Boeing to win the annual commercial jet orders race.

The European planemaker said after cancellations were taken into account, 1,109 aircraft were placed. Boeing meanwhile booked 912 net orders across the year.

Speaking via webcast Monday, outgoing Airbus sales chief John Leahy said in both narrowbody and widebody aircraft, Airbus had won the sales race in seven out of the last 10 years.

"We are well positioned in widebody and we are stunningly positioned in the single-aisle markets," he said.