[Business] Paris airshow goes green

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Paris Air Show goes green amid sluggish sales

It has a reputation for disorganisation, maddening congestion, and being disrupted by monsoon-like downpours. And yet the Paris Air Show remains the signature event for the aerospace and defence industry.

If you're in the market for a fighter jet, passenger plane, satellite, or drone, the biennial show - the 51st since 1909 - is the place to be. There'll be plenty to choose from.

As with previous shows, the news flow will be dominated by the big beasts of aerospace, Airbus and Boeing.

Planemakers like, if possible, to time their multi-billion-dollar orders to coincide with air shows. But such stage-management tends to be a decision for the customers, not the suppliers.

There has, though, been an uncharacteristic lack of pre-show hype this time.

Cowen & Co analyst Cai von Rumohr says the combined Boeing and Airbus order tally for civil aircraft by the end of the week could be below the average 387 seen in the past few years.

It's possible that airlines are pausing for breath. A rush to buy aircraft after the financial crisis means that Airbus and Boeing have record backlogs of almost 12,000 aircraft. Delivery slots for new planes are years in the future.

Boeing published its closely watched annual market forecast on Thursday, and expects airlines and freight firms to take delivery of 38,050 aircraft worth $5.6 trillion (£3.6tn) by 2034. Two out of every five newly built aircraft will feed Asia's booming travel market, Boeing said.

So, if Paris produces fewer orders than usual, it's a blip not a trend.