Plane Sales Increase at Farnborough International Airshow

Plane orders continued to rise at the Farnborough International Airshow yesterday, moving past US$25 billion and underlining hopes that the aviation sector is coming back to life after suffering from a 2-year downturn. The deals are considered a way of measuring the aviation industry, and they seem to be reviving worldwide.

Over 1,000 exhibitors from 38 countries signed up for the airshow this year, while there has also been a stronger interest from major Russian and Chinese markets. Although analysts don’t expect anything close to the US$88.7 billion record in 2008, the sales so far this year have exceeded the US$7 billion worth of orders at the airshow in Le Bourget last year.

Boeing has received a lot of orders for their new 787 Dreamliner, which made its debut at the airshow after being delayed for 2 years already. The first of the new jets is to be delivered later this year, but they have cautioned that this could be delayed to the first few weeks of next year due to paperwork issues.

So far, sales have included orders from: Flybe, 35 Embraer 175 planes for US$1.3 billion; Air Lease Corporation, 51 short-range A320s and A321s for US$4.4 billion; GE Capital Aviation Services, 60 A320s and 40 B737s for a total of US$7.9 billion; Aeroflot, 11 A330s for US$1.7 billion; Emirates, 30 B777s; Norwegian Air Shuttle, 15 B737s; Hong Kong Airlines, 15 A350s and 10 A330-200s for US$5.7 billion; and LAN Airlines, 50 A320s family of aircraft. There have been others as well.

Boeing commercial airplanes president Jim Albaugh said that it’s amazing how fast the market is recovering. People were worried about liquidity just 6 months ago, he added. Flybe chief executive Jim French says that it’s a good time to buy. Air Lease Corporation president John Plueger said that they see a lot of demand, with recovery starting in Asia.