Cloudy skies for world’s airlines
The mood at the Paris Air Show today is gloomy, and it's not just the rain. Besides the recent Air France crash, the economy is taking its toll on the airline industry to the tune of $9 billion in losses. Stephen Beard reports.
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Bill Radke: The Paris Air Show opened this morning — the 100th anniversary of that event. The mood is not celebratory. The recent Air France crash has cast a shadow, and as Stephen Beard reports, so has the recession.
Stephen BeardL Aircraft makers exhibiting at this years’ show were indundated. But not with orders. It poured with rain — a fitting backdrop for an industry immersed in gloom.
The customers, the world’s airlines, are set to lose some $9 billion this year. So they’re reluctant to buy any new planes. And with budget deficits widening everywhere, defense spending is under pressure, too.
Howard Wheeldon is aviation analyst with the BGC group. He says that Boeing, Airbus and the other planemakers in Paris won’t be bragging as usual about bulging orderbooks:
Howard Wheeldon: The attention this year is very much on the number of order deferrals and cancellations rather than orders. It’s a pretty grim, grim picture at the moment. Very sad.
Boeing had hoped to lift the gloom in Paris by flying the much-delayed 787 Dreamliner. But that’s now thought unlikely to make its maiden flight until next week.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.