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Airbus dominated the first day of the biennial Paris Air Show, unveiling close to $10bn of orders after its rival Boeing cut back its activities following last week’s fatal Air India crash.
The European planemaker has secured an order for up to 77 freight and passenger aircraft from Saudi Arabian leasing company AviLease, as well as deals with Riyadh Air and Polish airline LOT.
The world’s largest aerospace industry gathering is taking place just days after the crash of an Air India flight bound for London. The plane, a Boeing 787-8, crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad, killing all but one of 242 people on board.
Boeing scaled back its presence at the show after the disaster, with chief executive Kelly Ortberg and Stephanie Pope, the head of its commercial aircraft division, both cancelling plans to attend.
Investigators in India are continuing to examine one of the plane’s “black box” flight recorders, which records cockpit voices and flight data, to try to determine what happened.
The world’s two largest planemakers typically vie for large orders but the accident has cast a shadow over the show, which is also taking place against a backdrop of worries about US tariffs and worsening conflict in the Middle East.
AviLease, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, kicked off the show with an order for 30 A321 narrow-body aircraft, with options for 25 more, as well as 10 A350 freight planes and 12 options. Last month, it announced an order of 30 Boeing 737 Max jets during US President Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East.
Riyadh Air announced an order of 25 A350-1000 wide-body Airbus jets, with options for another 25. Poland’s LOT will buy 40 A220 narrow-body aircraft, with an option to extend to 84 planes.
The combined orders, excluding options, are valued at close to $10bn, according to estimates from aviation consultancy Cirium. Riyadh Air’s order of 25 A350s alone is valued at about $4.6bn, according to Cirium.
The orders announced on Monday bring the order book of Riyadh Air, which plans to operate its first flight later this year, to a total of 182, according to its chief executive Tony Douglas.
The orders come as both Boeing and Airbus have continued to struggle with persistent supply chain problems, with both “selling what they can build”, according to Sash Tusa, analyst at Agency Partners in London.
In the case of Airbus, this means wide-body A350s because they have a shorter lead time than the bestselling A320 family of narrow-body jets. Airbus has faced challenges increasing output of the A320, particularly because of shortages of engines.
The Polish order for A220 jets was welcome, said Tusa, because Airbus needs to sell more for the programme to break even.
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