Farnborough winds down on a quiet note

While the Farnborough Air Show will remain open to visitors for a couple more days, the business deals are now mostly done. I’ll provide a complete breakdown next week, but here’s a quick update and summary.

At the end of Day 3 the order & commitment total was 694, including mainline and regional jets, as well as ATR turboprops. Another 52 orders trickled in on Days 4 and 5, bringing the total to 746 at the end of the workday on Friday. Not a record, but a very strong performance nonetheless, and a clear sign that carriers and lessors feel that the future of the aviation industry is actually worth preparing for.

Of the total 746 orders and commitments, 543 were for mainline passenger jets from Boeing (236) and Airbus (307), 166 were for regional jets from a variety of manufacturers, and 37 were for turboprops. Of the 746 total orders, 405 were from carriers and 341 were from lessors.

In addition to the new orders, Boeing announced the names of customers for several orders which it had previously shown to be from “unidentified.” These included Qatar and Air Austral (two 777s each) Okay Airways (ten 737s), and Azerbaijan Airlines which ordered three 767s, including two freighters.

There is, however, one highly anticipated order that was not announced. Bombardier had been widely expected to announce an major order for its CSeries jet, likely from Qatar. The CSeries bridges the gap between regional and mainline jets, and is the first true competitor to the stranglehold Boeing and Airbus have had on the narrowbody market through their 737 and A320 families. Bombardier could still announce an order in the next few days… we shall see.