It is June 2nd. That means it’s airshow season! What remains clear ahead of the upcoming Paris Air Show is that Airbus will want to steal the limelight from Boeing following the Farnborough Air Show.
Using the previous Farnborough Air Show as a case study, what will Airbus want to achieve out of the air show in Le Bourget?
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Airbus To Hit Orders Hard At The Paris Air Show?
Ahead of the Paris Air Show, which is happening on June 18-23, Airbus will want to steal the limelight by securing as many orders on their home turf.
Rewinding back to the Farnborough Air Show back in July 2022, even the journalists noticed a slow week from Airbus, with no sales produced by them on Day 1.
Airbus’ only commercial announcement on Day 3 consisted of 56 A320neos for easyJet being firmed up from an existing 2013 framework. This means it isn’t a fresh order made at the Farnborough Air Show.
Commenting on the firming of the order was Kenton Jarvis, the CFO for easyJet, who said that the airline believes “this order will support positive returns for the business and the delivery of our strategic objectives”.
“The new aircraft is aligned with easyJet’s sustainability strategy, with the adoption of the more efficient new technology aircraft being a core component of easyJet’s path to net zero emissions. Alongside this, the new aircraft are significantly quieter, with half the noise footprint of the older aircraft they are replacing”.
“easyJet has democratized flying for millions of travelers, and we are delighted this latest agreement for 56 A320neo Family aircraft not only future proofs its growth as traffic rebounds but also lays the foundations for its sustainability journey”.
With this not being a fresh order, questions were raised by the media in the press conference. Scherer insists that Airbus doesn’t rehash old orders as a result of this announcement.
Questioned about aircraft sales, Scherer said the following:
“It was about time for Boeing to pick up some steam”. Such hard-hitting had obviously affected Scherer to a high extent, which of course, highlights frustration about journalists being correct.
Scherer Under Pressure?
Since Scherer’s comments about it being “about time for Boeing to pick up some steam”, could he be under pressure to secure a successful Paris Air Show for Airbus?
Boeing has scored some impressive orders since the Farnborough Air Show, such as the whopping deal from United Airlines for up to 200 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, as well as for 220 aircraft from Air India, although Airbus got a decent portion of the pie too.
All of this will add pressure on the likes of Scherer to ensure that some blockbuster orders are announced and to prevent further market share from moving away from the European planemaker.
That being said, however, Airbus does remain in a very strong position in terms of backlog.
As of data from April 2023’s orders and deliveries, the European planemaker has a whopping 7,202 aircraft in the backlog.
This, in comparison to Boeing’s backlog at 4,567 aircraft, could spell not as many orders for Airbus as most of their delivery slots would be taken up already, so maybe that is a good thing for Scherer and co.
All To Play For…
What remains clear here is that for Airbus, it could very well be all to play for here. There is an opportunity to increase the backlog even further and take that all-important market share off Boeing on the commercial front.
Will the European planemaker showcase as many orders? It’s hard to tell, but given how healthy their backlog is at the minute, they may not need to.
Either way, all eyes are on Airbus to see how they can make the most out of their home airshow, and whether this could be a Paris Air Show that further enhances their position in the market.
