On July 22, 2024, an Airbus A321 flew at the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom.
Toby Melville | Reuters
FARNborough, England — Hundreds of aircraft orders placed in recent years did not appear at this year’s biggest air show. Instead, the focus is on the struggle boeing company and airbus Increase aircraft production while responding to the impact of production fluctuations caused by the epidemic.
Analysts say many of the issues, especially training new staff, will take years to resolve, meaning airlines, suppliers and manufacturers themselves will face lingering headaches and a lack of new, more fuel-efficient engines. airplane.
“For our supply base and airlines, we have not failed to deliver on our commitments to them in terms of timeliness and predictability,” said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing’s senior vice president of global supply chain and manufacturing. It’s a fair sentiment. “Obviously, people are starting to make their own plans and second-guess things. “
Production roadmaps for the coming months will be released this week, with Airbus reporting quarterly results on Tuesday and Boeing Co. on Wednesday. Wall Street analysts expect Boeing to lose money again in the second quarter and possibly the next. Airbus has lowered its delivery target for this year.
Moderate order
According to statistics, at the air show that ended on Friday, Boeing received a total of 96 orders and commitments, including previously stable sales, while Airbus received 266 orders, well below the 826 orders during the Paris Air Show a year ago. Order. Paris and Farnborough alternately host the World Expo each year.
Order volumes during the show were sluggish because narrow-body jets such as the Boeing 737 Max and Airbus A321neo have been largely sold out by both manufacturers for much of the decade. Boeing’s backlog totals nearly 5,500 aircraft, while Airbus has more than 8,000 on order. Many airlines from United Airlines As tourism rebounds during the epidemic, Air India has also stocked up on new aircraft orders.
Boeing has been particularly low-key at air shows — it hasn’t brought any commercial aircraft for flight demonstrations, focusing instead on its safety crises and manufacturing problems. Arlington, Virginia-based Boeing is trying to increase production of its main Max plane to around 38 planes per month, and investors will be looking this week for clues as to when those goals can be achieved.
Airbus showcased its new ultra-long-range narrow-body aircraft, the Airbus A321XLR, which received certification from European regulators just days ahead of the show.
parts shortage
Visitors to air shows typically see fleets of aircraft capable of flying for decades, but much of the industry’s attention this year has been on production in the coming months.
From landing gear to engine parts like high-pressure blades, parts are in short supply Increasingly sophisticated cabin interiors, such as those with premium seats, are also in short supply. That slowed production, deprived airlines of more fuel-efficient planes and angered some senior executives.
Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president, commercial sales and marketing, The Boeing Company, with Peter Anderson, chief commercial officer of AerCap, attend a press conference at the Farnborough International Air Show on July 19, 2022 in Farnborough, England.
Matthew Childs | Reuters
Christian Scherer, chief executive of the European manufacturer’s commercial aircraft business, said Airbus was taking a “more pragmatic approach than ever before” by deploying more than 200 supply chain engineers among suppliers.
“We don’t want to see another situation in the future where supply chains don’t believe what we tell them, whether we’re growing or slowing down the industry,” Scherer told us.
Airbus said last month it would cut its aircraft delivery target for this year and said it would slow planned production growth, citing “ongoing specific supply chain issues primarily in engines, aerostructures and cabin equipment.”
Meanwhile, in addition to supply chain issues, Boeing is trying to move past a safety crisis caused by a burst door jam in January and a series of manufacturing defects that slowed production.
New workers, low wages in focus
Production of new aircraft has been hampered by the loss of skilled workers who have either been laid off or taken early retirement amid the Covid-19 pandemic’s slump in air travel. Manufacturers now need to train new workers – a major challenge.
“I think this is a three- to five-year question,” said Kevin Michaels of industry consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory. “Wages must be readjusted to make the industry more attractive to workers.”
Boeing’s Munir acknowledged that lower wages were a problem further down the supply chain and said Boeing itself should invest in their training.
“There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “I don’t think these smaller vendors who are critical to the ecosystem can shoulder that burden. We have to again leverage our balance sheet and do it ourselves at a higher level. It will pay off.”
Delphine Bazaud, head of industrial supply chain and digital operations at Airbus, said training new workers in aerospace like “bakers, butchers, people who work in very different areas of the business” will require more training. Much time.
Michaels of Aerodynamics Consulting predicts that, in the case of the United States, more aerospace jobs will eventually move abroad “to wherever the labor is available.”
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