Paris – a good show for freighters

In recent years, the world’s big air shows have not featured much interest in freighters, but things changed at this year’s Paris Air Show.

The charts below summarize the 990 orders and commitments announced at the show for full-size commercial jets, regional jets, and turboprops. These include firm orders, letters of intent, and memoranda of understanding, but not options. And, as always, given the fast and furious nature of the order announcements at Paris and Farnborough, it is possible we may have missed something.

As can be seen in the charts, there are the usual massive orders for narrowbodies passenger aircraft from lessors like AerCap and GECAS, and low-cost carriers (Wizz Air, this year), so the total number of freighters order – just twenty-nine – doesn’t stand out as particularly large, but it marks a significant uptick over recent years, and the MoU for twenty 747-8Fs from the Volga-Dnepr Group has been cited by some commentators as being the big surprise of the whole show.

But there was more than just that twenty-unit MoU and nine orders for 777Fs from EVA and Qatar. Not shown in the chart, and not the recipient of much publicity, was the announcement by Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), of the launch of a new combi version of its hugely popular ATR72-600 turboprop passenger aircraft. The company said the new combi was currently undergoing certification with EASA, with an STC expected in September or October, followed immediately by delivery of the first unit to launch customer Airlines PNG.

And finally, although the big show is over, we expect there is at least one major freighter announcement still to come, so stay tuned…

To learn more about freighter fleet dynamics, click here.