by Lisa Barrington, Brenda Goh and Joe Brock
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Singapore Air Show, Asia’s largest, opened on Tuesday amid a strong recovery in air traffic that aircraft manufacturers are struggling to keep up with due to supply problems.
The biannual meeting of commercial and defense aviation this year attracted more than a thousand companies from around fifty countries, including the giants Airbus, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as Comac and Avic, their Chinese competitors.
Comac, which presented its C919 airliner outside China for the first time, announced the order of 40 copies of the single-aisle aircraft by Tibet Airlines.
Royal Brunei Airlines, for its part, purchased four Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The American aircraft manufacturer also signed the contract for the sale of 45 units of the aircraft to Thai Airways.
Set early in the year, the Singapore show is generally less packed with announcements than its counterparts in Paris, Farnborough and Dubai.
The strong recovery in air traffic, which has returned to its levels before the covid pandemic, is however increasing the appetite of airlines.
“We see 2024 as a real return to normal,” said Steven Townend, chief executive of Singapore-based aircraft lessor BOC Aviation. “The industry is growing, companies are making money again on a global scale.”
But aircraft manufacturers are struggling to keep up with demand after job losses, freight problems and the recruitment crisis caused by the covid crisis.
Boeing is also in the crosshairs of the American Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) after an incident in early January on board an Alaska Airlines aircraft.
The FAA took the unprecedented decision to freeze the production rate of the 737 MAX at 38 per month, prohibiting the aircraft manufacturer from accelerating the rate.
Airbus has just announced the postponement of the entry into service of its A321XLR single-aisle aircraft from the second to the third quarter. Suppliers interviewed by Reuters say Airbus is making about 50 A320neo family aircraft each month compared to a target of 58 by the end of 2023.
Christian Scherer, chief executive of Airbus’ commercial aviation division, said Tuesday that there are many bottlenecks in the aviation supply chain that the planemaker is working to address.
(Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the , edited by Kate Entringer)
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