Billions of dollars are at stake as the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing Co and Airbus SE, duel over orders this week at the Farnborough Air Show in Hampshire, UK — the biggest event of its kind this year.
Beyond the order avalanche, manufacturers, suppliers and airlines use the event to haggle over contracts and float ideas for new planes and ventures. Military officials and governments hammer out arms deals and announce defense initiatives.
Farnborough, which alternates with the Paris Air Show held every other year at the city’s Le Bourget Airport, is also a showcase for new technology and ideas, from flying taxis to space flight.
The US manufacturer got things going with a US$4.7 billion order for 14 Boeing 777 Freighters and purchase rights for an additional seven.
The new order is to double DHL’s global B777 fleet and help it curb emissions, the delivery service said.
Heading into the show, Airbus was closing in on orders totaling US$29 billion, based on list prices, from Taiwanese startup StarLux Airlines (星宇航空) and Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd.
The US$23 billion AirAsia deal would give a boost to Airbus’ slow-selling A330neo wide-body, while adding to the order pile for the popular A320neo narrowbody family. AirAsia would become the biggest customer for the marquee jet.
StarLux, founded by former Eva Airways chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒), is aiming to start long-haul service to North America by 2021.
Airbus is seeking to jump-start the order book for its newly acquired C Series small jetliner, now renamed the A220, which it sells in a joint venture with Canada’s Bombardier Aerospace.
Going into Farnborough, Airbus was trying to iron out the last hurdles to a 60-jet order from David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways Corp, and a group of investors who are trying to start a new US low-cost airline.
The A220 program received an important vote of confidence from Air Lease Corp founder Steven Udvar-Hazy, who told reporters that the A220 is “a more attractive prospect” under Airbus.
“This has changed the whole landscape in terms of its credibility,” Udvar-Hazy said.
The largest manufacturer of jet engines, CFM International Inc, has a message for Airbus and Boeing executives who are mulling a boost in production of their narrow-body aircraft next decade: “not so fast.”
Airbus and Boeing are undergoing an unprecedented order boom for single-aisle aircraft driven by fuel-saving planes and growth in air travel, especially in Asia. That has put pressure on suppliers — especially engine manufacturers — who have fallen behind on orders.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS