It’s coming up to that time of year again – where the aviation community gathers together to show off their latest wares.
Yes – it’s the 53rd edition of Salon du Bourget – or the Paris Air Show 2019.
What to look forward to?
There’s going to be a fair bit to look forward to, with a fair bit going on.
- Orders – The order book will be interesting this year. Normally big orders are the name of the game, with Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, ATR and Embraer battling out. But there are clouds in the sky – to put it bluntly, this year. Not only the economic tit for tat battles but also the grounding on one aircraft
- The Boeing 737 MAX debacle – We’re all kind of familiar with this omnishambles. How will Boeing get around it and move the conversation onwards will be interesting to see. Could we see the acceleration of a replacement narrowbody clean-sheet plane?
- Mitsubishi and Bombardiers CRJ programme – Could we get an announcement that Mitsubishi gets to purchase the CRJ programme, allowing Bombardier to exit the commercial aviation business?
- Boeing’s New Midsized Airplane – Whilst we may not see a launch this year, I’d hope we will find out a little more about the plans at the airshow
- Airbus’s A321XLR – With the successful entry into service of the A321LR, could Airbus take the opportunity to launch the extended long-range product? All signs are pointing to a formal launch of the programme.
- More VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing taxi) concepts – It seems that the sex appeal of this concept for air-taxi continues to charm the industry. How viable it is another matter completely…
- And the displays. Which make the air show in many respects with both civil and military equipment showing off to their best.
- COMAC – What will they show this year as they progress with their domestic programmes?
Already announced
- The Mitsubishi Regional Jet Rebrand – With promises of announcements, hopefully, there will some movement on the project next week
- Raytheon and United Technologies to merge – A big one, which could combine two defence and aerospace giants. An interesting move if it goes through, with a possibility to impact everything in the cabin
- The comfort turnaround by Airbus with their A350s – A disappointment from Airbus who are proposing 10 across A350s to combat the 777X family. With 10 across aircraft in service, there’s a major comfort gap to bridge. (Covered by Runway Girl)
Economy Class and Beyond Paris Air Show coverage
As my press credentials didn’t show up this year, I’ll be covering this from the sidelines (or over back in Birmingham sadly). On our planned coverage:
- We’ll be keeping a tight eye on the order books, with our Daily Digest (published around 20:00BST all things being equal)
- Big news articles will get their own posts
The air show season is an important one for the upcoming year and dictates a lot of the future trends (such as the passenger experience and connectivity that we take a deep interest in this blog). No doubt, there will be a fair amount of surprises during the show.
And it will be fun to see it unfold.
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