DOSSIER
AUTONEWS
Farnborough Airshow
From hybrid planes to new engines to long, slender wings, the aerospace industry is laser-focused on designing more efficient aircraft.
At the Farnborough Airshow, this year’s version of the aerospace industry’s marquee trade event that alternates between London and Paris, the future of flight dominated the conversation this week.
The industry is always looking to reduce the amount of fuel needed to power its aircraft, both to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and to save on fuel costs. But this year saw a wave of optimism that these technologies, as well as an entirely new aircraft, could be coming soon.
Demand is high across all segments of the aerospace industry — commercial, defense, space and private jets, as well as maintenance, repair and replacement parts. And, on the commercial side, major manufacturers and their suppliers say they are ready to ramp up.
That cautious optimism took hold last year, as Boeing showed promising signs that it was ready to increase production of its most popular and most lucrative plane, the 737 MAX, and solidified into real confidence this year, air show attendees and analysts said after the first days of the weeklong trade show.
Analysts from Morgan Stanley wrote in a note to investors that the industry’s “upcycle remains in its early innings,” and companies are “investing for sustained growth rather than preparing for a cyclical slowdown.”
Analysts from RBC Capital opened their optimistic note to investors with the warning that “we have been down this path before,” only to be disappointed later, but admitted that this year “the industry has more confidence” and appears to have fewer risks lurking in the background.
Stephanie Pope, head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told reporters just ahead of the air show, which concludes Friday, that the manufacturer had stabilized its operations, after two years of internal review following a catastrophic 2024, and is now ready to think about optimizing.
All of that optimism freed attention to turn toward the next entirely new, “clean-sheet” airplane, something neither Boeing nor Airbus have undertaken in nearly three decades. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg shifted his tone from just a few weeks earlier, telling some reporters this week he expects the company will have the financial stability to introduce its new program in the next few years.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury doubled down on his expectation that Airbus will launch its next narrowbody program by 2030.
“We’re not there yet, we are maturing the technologies, but we have a road map,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Lars Wagner, head of commercial aircraft for Airbus, described the process as a “push and pull.” Airbus is targeting 2030 but it also has to wait until the technology — like engines and digital architecture — that will make it a next-generation plane is ready.
“If you want to launch such a game-changing product, you have to lay down some bricks,” he said.
Airbus and Boeing secured just over 300 orders at this year’s air show, slightly above the order count at last year’s Paris air show and 30% higher than the tally at the 2024 Farnborough Airshow, according to aerospace analysts Vertical Research Partners.
In 2024, Boeing was still reeling from a midair fuselage panel blowout that January and knew its Machinists union in the Puget Sound area, where it builds the majority of its commercial airplanes, was poised to strike later that year.
This year, Boeing beat Airbus on the orders front, announcing 169 orders to Airbus’ 140. Brazilian manufacturer Embraer secured 58 orders.
At Farnborough, the companies often marked order announcements with some fanfare and a signing ceremony in one of the temporary “chalets” that popped up around a usually quiet airport. The suburban English town filled with businesspeople clad in suits, cramming into four pavilions full of companies showing off their latest products between meetings with potential customers.
Heading into the show, Airbus was outpacing Boeing on yearly orders, with Airbus reporting 821 net orders from January through the end of June and Boeing reporting 386 net orders after cancellations and adjustments for accounting principles.
Of the orders placed during the air show, aircraft lessor SMBC Aviation Capital made the largest commitment, ordering 100 narrowbody planes from Boeing and Airbus each.
Boeing’s 777X program took the biggest hit during the show. The plane-maker said it had last year scrapped one of its first planes due to the amount of repair needed to incorporate design changes after a lengthy certification process.
Then Tim Clark, president of Gulf carrier Emirates, said the airline wouldn’t accept the first 10 777X planes slated for delivery because of that rework, though he added he felt Boeing was now back on track with the long delayed aircraft family and its overall manufacturing philosophy.
The next day, engine maker Rolls-Royce revealed that Airbus is considering a 777X rival by stretching its current widebody A350, according to media reports.
Companies and suppliers vehemently highlighted one problem they do not have: demand.
Whether the supply chain, which includes a global network of parts makers, can keep up is another question.
“We’re not in an arena where we don’t have demand; we’re in an arena where we have to keep focused on how do we get better at what we do,” said Chris Raymond, the head of Boeing’s Global Services Division, which provides maintenance and aftermarket support to customers.
Pope, Boeing’s head of commercial airplanes, told reporters its supply chain “is still a little bit volatile,” though it is seeing improvement.
Boeing and its suppliers face the same problems, Pope said, so Boeing has been working to incorporate the changes to its supply chain it has made over the two years since the 2024 midair fuselage blowout.
“In many cases, we’re sending experts in to partner and help with them,” Pope said. “That’s something we’re going to have to continue to monitor.”
In a different corner of the industry, RTX’s senior vice president for supply chain Sarfraz Nawaz said at a supply chain-focused panel that companies earlier in the production cycle are lagging behind the industry’s recovery. RTX is a Virginia-based conglomerate that includes Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon and Collins Aerospace.
Nawaz was referring to what’s known as second- and third-tier suppliers, companies serving companies who then make materials and products for major manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus.
Those suppliers are struggling to find talented workers and financing to scale up. A slow regulatory process to bring new suppliers on board to fill those gaps is also standing in the way, as are ever-changing geopolitics, from the pandemic to tariffs to the war in Iran.
“Every six months something else is happening,” Nawaz said. “Even though one (challenge) goes away, something else will come up and take its place.”
Boeing is looking at ways to add redundancy to its supply chain and ensure it doesn’t have a single source for crucial parts and components, in case something goes awry, William Ampofo, a senior vice president for the Global Services Division, said at the panel.
The pandemic limited redundancy in Boeing’s supply chain, Ampofo said. Now, it’s setting up a “heat map” to spot areas of concern before a problem develops.
In Washington state, home to more than 1,500 aerospace-related companies according to the state’s Commerce Department, suppliers are seeing the increased demand — and that translated to a very successful air show.
“If you have capacity, somebody wants it,” said Elizabeth Brane, a vice president with aerostructures company Aernnova and board chair for the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance.
Gretchen Reimbold, chief operating officer for Washington-based Mid-Mountain Materials, shared the optimism, speaking at Washington state’s booth during a cheerful happy hour at the end of the third day of the show.
“The aerospace community,” she said, “is rebounding.”
Boeing, opens new tab edged Airbus, opens new tab in a subdued series of order announcements at the Farnborough Airshow this week, as the global aerospace industry focuses on fixing lingering supply constraints and catching up on record order backlogs.
The deals — worth tens of billions of dollars — were in line with expectations within the industry for just over 300 orders, reported by Reuters ahead of the event, but fell short of some bullish external forecasts reaching as high as 800 aircraft.
The once-addictive buzz surrounding orders at air shows has been fading in recent years as planemakers avoid giving jarring messages at a time when they are struggling industrially, and as airlines digest a record number of aircraft still on order.
"I didn't have high expectations of big commercial orders at the show, not particularly because of the current macro or geopolitical climate, but because a lot of large orders are already out there," airline analyst John Strickland said.
Boeing announced firm and preliminary orders for 173 aircraft, helped by a mix of narrowbody and widebody deals, while its European rival announced 154 firm and provisional orders, for a total of 327, according to a Reuters tally.
After excluding deals already in manufacturer order books without the buyer initially being named — including Boeing's half of a big lessor order — the overall tally was 218 aircraft.
That's up slightly on the previous Farnborough event in 2024, but well below the 2018 cyclical peak of 1,109 orders for the two dominant manufacturers.
Following years of supply-chain disruptions, labour shortages and manufacturing setbacks, Airbus and Boeing have amassed order books stretching well into the next decade.
With manufacturers focused on increasing output and airlines facing long waits for new jets, air shows are generating fewer headline-grabbing orders and even planes than in the past.
"Demand is not the issue," Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope told reporters on the eve of the show.
Airbus showed off its A350-1000 as it considers stretching the jet to counter Boeing's delayed 777X.
Boeing did not bring any of its major commercial variants, three of which are in the process of being certified.
The week's biggest commercial deal came from the world's second-largest lessor SMBC Aviation, which split an order for 200 single-aisle jets evenly between the two main planemakers, buying 100 Boeing 737 MAX and 100 Airbus A320neo-family jets.
The deal underscored still-strong demand for narrowbody aircraft, the workhorses of short- and medium-haul travel, despite scarce delivery slots and supplier bottlenecks.
Other deals included continued demand for widebody jets, with Riyadh Air and Philippine Airlines shopping at both manufacturers and leasing giant AerCap buying more Boeing 787s.
Away from the main aircraft stands, a key feature of the show was a record order for more than 1,000 LEAP-1A engines from CFM International to power 500 previously ordered Airbus jets.
A previous aircraft order boom stoked in part by low interest rates has placed high industrial demands on the engine industry, leading to parts shortages and maintenance delays.
Both CFM and Pratt & Whitney, the main supplier affected, said the industrial situation was improving steadily.
