THE PARIS AIR SHOW, which began on June 17th, is the largest event of its type in the world. Aerospace and defence firms flock to Le Bourget to show off their wares to potential customers, and to rack up orders for the future. The last few shows have been money-spinners for commercial-aircraft makers, particularly Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing, the two firms that between them make almost all the world’s large jetliners.
Boeing had hoped to be very busy in Paris this week. It was expected to launch the 797, a new mid-sized jet to fill the gap in its range between its smaller 737 narrow-body airliner and its much larger 787 and 777 wide-body jets. But now all bets are off. Boeing is likely to have a low profile at Paris.
No wonder that Airbus, its arch-rival, is expecting a good air show. It is showing off five of its airliners in Paris, unlike Boeing which is able to display only one. The European aerospace giant is planning to launch the A321XLR, an aircraft designed to knock Boeing’s 797 out the sky. It is a simple adaptation of its popular A321neo aircraft and building it will therefore require only a fraction of the cost of developing the all-new Boeing 797.
Beyond Boeing’s particular problems at this year’s show, some commentators will inevitably leap on a fall in overall sales to say something is going wrong in the market for commercial jets.
But a few disappointing months of traffic figures does not make an aviation recession. Many airlines are sitting on their hands as neither Boeing nor Airbus have any spare production slots available in the near term for their most popular planes. Both already have huge backlogs of orders to keep busy. The number of aircraft on Airbus’s orderbook will keep its assembly lines busy for over nine years at current rates of production; that number for Boeing is over seven.
With trade wars come recession.
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