Commercial Air Transport firm orders numbered just 102 aircraft – 50 narrowbodies and 41 widebodies. This is one of the lowest order tallies ever seen at the Farnborough or Paris Air Shows.
From the conversations we had at the Show, our takeaways on the market:
- No one gives credence to airframer build forecasts or aspirations – everyone is doing their own production outlook.
- Supply chain issues are worse at this year‘s air show than was expected at last year‘s air show.
- Long lead times persist for specialty steel grades.
- Nickel supply has kept up with demand but nickel castings and forgings continue to be the constrained areas.
- 737MAX – Raw material orders have slowed to around rate 30 but airframe parts and assembly inflow has not slowed down. A rate reduction is anticipated by suppliers
