Paris Air Show round-up: $72.4bn total with most firm orders ever
IFA Comment: Across the globe, it’s good to see aircraft operators firming up on aircraft orders in a big way. This suggest that the aviation industry is well on the way to recovery. We need to look afresh at the airworthiness challenges coming down the line. A new generation of aircraft is changing the pattern of operations.
IBA Weekly 23/06/2023 (Issue 32)
Whilst Paris Air Show is known to be quiet on the last two weekdays, no one quite expected the absence of significant business that would continue until late on Monday. This quiet was broken by a blockbuster 500 aircraft order from IndiGo. Air India then followed up by firming their 470 aircraft order the next day.
The week had been flush with rumours of large orders, leading IBA to forecast a total greater than 2,000 aircraft. We did not hit that estimate. However, if Turkish Airlines had committed to their rumoured 600 aircraft order, we would’ve been very close!
At the time of writing, on Friday lunchtime, the total orders including Firm, MOUs, LOIs and Options reached 1,303 aircraft, worth $72.4bn based on IBA’s 2023 Current Market Values. This is an impressive total, with only 2013 accruing a larger tally. A more interesting detail is that 1,160 (89%) were firm orders, the highest ever. Having firm orders is good news for the programmes in terms of long-term confidence in them as well as securing Pre-Delivery-Payments (PDP). Large orders will allow the operator to demand a superior price, however, the OEM may also be able to benefit from demanding higher PDP in the higher risk transactions.
Operators appear to be firming up orders to secure delivery slots in an environment of supply delays. However, with orders of such scale, questions arise as to whether the local markets can accommodate the growth. This is especially the case when the two airlines making the largest orders are in the same country.
