The Paris Air Show kicked off this week at Paris – Le Bourget Airport. The air show is the world’s oldest and largest of its kind. The event attracts around 2 200 companies from 144 countries and will welcome more than 35 000 visitors. With the first few days closed to the public, it is serious business and the rivalry is hot.
The Air Show has long been seen as a key battleground between the world’s two largest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus. Earlier this month, Boeing threw down the gauntlet prior to the race to secure the biggest and best orders of the year by predicting that the world would need around 35 000 new jets over the next 20 years.
By close of business on day one, Boeing was already showing signs of dragging its heels as its European rival announced $ 18.3bn worth of orders in comparison to Boeing’s $6.1bn.
While Boeing has predicted that growth over the next 20 years will be dominated by the Asian markets, the majority of Airbus’s order has come from European carriers. Namely, easyJet who on the second day of the show announced a deal with the European aerospace giant for 135 new aircraft worth in excess of $11bn. German airline Lufthansa, meanwhile, announced that it had finalised a deal with Airbus (originally announced in March) for 100 medium-range Airbus A320 aircraft, worth £8.5bn at list prices.
Boeing‘s head of commercial operations, Ray Conner, however remains optimistic that they will emerge as the winners by the end of the show by confirming that the show was “a great competition” and “I think we have better products and at the end of the day, hopefully the better product will win”.
Source: BBC & Aviation Week
