The world’s biggest international air show went into its second day yesterday after chalking up US$20 billion in sales with hopes high of more to come as the airline industry bets on sustained growth ahead.
All eyes will be on a possible order from Malaysia’s low-cost pioneer AirAsia worth US$18 billion for 200 A320neos, the upgraded and more fuel-efficient workhorse of the Airbus stable.
A senior AirAsia official said on Monday that “we are looking at 200 jets” and the deal could be sealed in the next few days in Paris, giving Airbus all the bragging points it could wish for over arch rival Boeing.
Airbus and US aerospace giant Boeing dominated proceedings on Monday, but smaller companies such as Canada’s Bombardier and Embraer of Brazil staked their claim too with important orders for their regional jets.
Alongside the majors, more than 2,000 smaller aerospace -companies are touting their wares at the 49th edition of the Paris International Airshow at Le Bourget in the northern suburbs.
Airbus came into the show confident on the back of Indian and Philippine orders for the A320neo worth more than US$10 billion and added another 142 planes, mostly of the same model, tagged at US$15.1 billion on Monday.
Boeing, which traditionally spreads its order announcements out, also made a good start, selling 22 planes for US$3.44 billion, while another unnamed client made a commitment to buy 15 of its upgraded 747-8 jumbo jets.
The biggest customers were the giant US aircraft leasing firms ALC and Gecas, gearing up for sustained growth, which Boeing estimates will come in at an average 4.5 percent annually for years to come as the industry dusts itself off from the global financial crisis.
Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing’s commercial aircraft operations, said on Monday the market was coming back strongly, but noted that smaller firms from emerging countries such as China and Brazil were beginning to make an impact.
“Traffic is coming back in very strong fashion,” Albaugh said, adding that the days of the Airbus-Boeing “duopoly” were over.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day