Farnborough 2018: Boeing and Airbus land orders worth billions

The 2018 Farnborough Airshow, a biennial aviation display underway outside of London, has seen top airplane-makers Airbus and The Boeing Company (BA) rake in orders worth over $40 billion. The event will continue through this week and will see aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, airline companies, and heads of military and government divisions come together to discuss new ventures, contracts and defense initiatives.

The airshow, which fosters new ideas and technology, usually sees its biggest deals at the onset. Boeing and Airbus seem to have made the best of this boom. Boeing has secured orders from India’s Jet Airways valued at more than $8 billion. The US planemaker also received orders from DHL for freighters worth $4.7 billion.

Other deals secured by Boeing include one with Qatar Airways valued at $1.7 billion and one with United Airlines which is worth $1.1 billion. On its second day at the show, the company secured an order worth more than $11 billion from a Russian airline.

Boeing’s European competitor Airbus has also added some valuable orders to its kitty. The company struck an $8.8 billion deal with an undisclosed buyer. Airbus secured orders worth $6 billion from Taiwanese company STARLUX and $3.2 billion from Chinese airline Sichuan Airlines. The planemaker is said to be working on around $29 billion worth of deals with Asian carriers.

The aviation industry is seeing good trends in passenger traffic and demand for aircraft orders, but the looming trade war is likely to play spoilsport in all this. The British aviation industry, meanwhile, will see impacts from Brexit. At a time when a significant part of US aerospace production gets takers from abroad, a trade war will cause significant damage. Companies like Boeing, which get good business from China, will be the first victims.

However, setting aside the doomsday predictions, things appear to be going well at Farnborough thus far. According to a report by Reuters, Boeing raised its rolling 20-year industry forecast for passenger and cargo aircraft to 42,700 industry deliveries, up 3% from last year’s estimate of 41,030. This would be worth $6.3 trillion versus $6.1 trillion last year.