A week from now, the biennial Farnborough Air Show kicks off with the long awaited arrival of the 787 Dreamliner outside of the United States for the first time.
While defense budget pressures could mean less headline-making opportunities, aside from the recent submissions for the equally, if not longer delayed KC-X tanker contract, much of the next week at the show may be dominated by commercial activity, heralding a much needed boost to the belief that a meaningful industry-wide recovery has indeed started.
With Emirates already making a pre-Farnborough splash at the ILA Air Show last month for a further 32 Airbus A380′s, the airline is widely believed to follow this up with new orders for both 777′s and A350XWB’s. With Dubai Aerospace Enterprise looking to defer or even cancel some of its orders, Emirates stepping in to pick up the slack will work to alleviate any production issues for both Airbus and Boeing on the basis that they are unable to place deliveries with other customers.
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Pratt & Whitney and its GTF engine is rumoured to be one big beneficiary if the rumours of a Qatar Airways order for Bombardier’s struggling CSeries emerge to be true. The Doha-based airline is also believed to either give details on its plans for an all new, low cost airline or indeed launch the entity at the show. Qatar Airways has fallen behind its Persian Gulf rivals in the chase for low cost leisure traffic as incumbents like Air Arabia, Jazeera Airways, FlyDubai and others make their mark in the region.
CFM International will provide updates on the CFM56-7BE engine, due to deliver a 2% cut in fuel burn for the existing 737 Next Generation family while also outlining its progress on the second and third core test demonstrators for the LEAP-X1C engine which debuts on the COMAC C919 family in 2014.
Where Etihad Airways made headlines two years ago with its record orders for an array of Airbus and Boeing jets, this year it seems likely that Emirates and Qatar Airways will do the same.
As is customary at England’s most popular air show, Airbus will dominate the visuals with plenty of jets from the A318 right up to the A380 – for the public, they’ll unfortunately miss the 787 on display until July 20th, instead having a Qatar Airways 777-300ER to view in its place.
The Dubai Air Show only mustered a fraction of business seen in 2007 and last summers Paris Air Show was just as muted in contrast to that same year. Will this years Farnborough Air Show mark the turning point for the industry as the usual suspects come to place big orders?
Only time will tell – but what is clear, irrespective of what’s going on in the marketplace, the Middle East region continues its explosive growth and is being followed with a raft of new orders to sap up the seemingly insatiable demand that grows each month.
Air France-KLM and Lufthansa have already noted their fears about Emirates’ imposing dominance and the threat it poses to their home markets – but with so many orders being leveraged as a political tool for aerospace jobs at Airbus, their concerns may grow, but so will Emirates’ business.
