A Scorcher Of A Show

The 2018 edition of the Farnborough Airshow once again delivered in terms of record deals for jetliners. It once again underlined the fact that the commercial aircraft industry remains in good health.

- C Santhosh

One aspect that remains constant at major airshows worldwide is the rivalry between Airbus and Boeing with both airframers vying hard to announce a larger number of aircraft orders and deals at the show. This year the same scorching pace was matched by an unusually warm English summer, which had company execs hot under the collar, but for all the right reasons.

Airbus declared the Farnborough Airshow 2018 (FIA 2018) as ‘massive’, announcing that it had won new business for 431 single-aisle and widebody jetliners at the expo. But apart from Airbus unveiling the A220 (the erstwhile Bombardier C Series), it was Boeing that came out ahead with orders and commitments for 673 aircraft. The company notched up total commercial airplane orders and commitments worth $98.4 billion (at list prices) and commercial and defence services orders and agreements valued at $2.1 billion.

However, when one looks beyond the hoopla, it is clear that firm orders were much lesser and the majority of the announcements for aircraft buys fell in the realm of Letter of Intent (LoI) and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). While LOIs/MoUs do in the majority of the cases translate into firm orders, it is not always the case – as they are merely an understanding between the airline and the airframer that there is an intent to acquire a certain number of aircraft. When a firm order is finally placed, the orders or options could be smaller or for another variant or even another type and in some cases, the order itself never coming through.