While the commercial airlines sector was on an even keel, the defence segment was adversely impacted and this reverberated at the show. The mood was notably more subdued than the mood last year at Paris.

Metap horically and literally, it was just a drizzle at the Farnborough International Air Show, the world’s biggest aviation mela, unlike the 2011 Paris Airshow which was ‘deluged’ with orders, more so by Airbus. The reasons are not difficult to fathom—Europe and other western economies are reeling under recession and aerospace majors are concentrating on clearing backlogs.

The battle between the two aerospace giants (Airbus and Boeing) was also ‘muted’. There was no ‘jousting’, though Boeing official brushed aside Airbus competition coming on to their home turf, so to say, stating that they were not worried. Prior to the show, Airbus had indicated that it would be setting up the final assembly line of the A320 aircraft in the US.

The Farnborough Air Show did not have any show stoppers, though there were a few announcements which grabbed attention. Even the UK Prime Minister David Cameron who inaugurated the air show was cautiously optimistic, while endorsing support to the UK defence and aerospace community. He pledged the government’s “unstinting, unrelenting, unflagging commitment to making Britain the best place in the world for aerospace businesses to invest, design, manufacture and export.”

Cameron pointed out, “In a hugely difficult time in the global economy UK aerospace is quite simply, flying, employing over 1,00,000 people, turning over more than £20 billion a year, holding a 17 per cent share of the global market. But there can be absolutely no complacency. International competition gets fiercer by the year. The UK has got to fight for every contract and every opportunity. That’s why we as a government are doing everything possible to get behind UK aerospace. We’ve established an aerospace growth partnership to make sure that five, ten, twenty years down the line, this industry continues to thrive and grow.”

So seems to be the intent of all governments of supporting an industry which has tremendous potential.

Russian Ploy

The air show will be talked about less for orders and more for strategic announcements. Take, for instance, how the Russians are relooking at the aerospace industry. The President of United Aircraft Corporation, Mikhail Pogosyan, enunciated the paradigm shift that was taking place in Russian policy-making, increasing revenue generation through commercial aircraft and reducing dependence on defence.

The Russians are seeing prospects in commercial airlines as more and more people are going to be flying in the years to come, particularly in the emerging markets, whereas defence spends are going to be dictated by a whole lot of parameters to do with geopolitics. And with slashed defence spends in the western world, the defence industry is also reworking its strategies with a lot of pain.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100) is an example of Russian strategy. It is for the first time that a Russian aviation company has been an international project coordinator, with more than 30 leading western companies involved in the project.

SSJ100 order book stands at about 170 firm orders, including approximately 100 orders from customers outside Russia. This proves that the jet is in demand not only within the Russian domestic market, but also in the international regional jet market.

Boeing, Airbus on a consolidation spree

Boeing scored at the show, thanks to its growing leasing company customers such as Air Lease Corporation, GECAS, ALAFCO and Avolon, all of them totalling orders of 220 737 family airplanes. In addition, United Airlines ordered 150 of 737 jets, worth $14.7 billion at list prices. During the Farnborough week, Boeing had orders and commitments for 396 airplanes, valued at over $37 billion. The number of Boeing net orders for 2012 stands at 691 and the 737 Max has accumulated 649 orders till date.

Boeing announced during the show key partnerships with Embraer (weapons integration for A-29 Super Tucano) and Elbit Systems (collaboration on Hermes unmanned airborne systems). The company also shared plans for the 2012 ecoDemonstrator, an American Airlines 737-800 that will be used as a flying test-bed to accelerate environmentally progressive technologies. New Boeing offerings for defence and security customers unveiled at the show include a medium-sized maritime surveillance aircraft and the introduction of the intelligent sensor camera system that fully integrates video processing capability.

Other highlights at the show were the presence of a Korean Air 737-900ER with the new Boeing Sky Interior; the multi-role F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter; the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor; the C-17 Globemaster III airlifter; the F-15E Eagle fighter and the AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter.

Boeing also highlighted its services portfolio, a growing market segment projected to reach $2.4 trillion on the commercial side over the next 20 years. The 2012 Pilot & Technician Outlook forecasts a 20-year demand for more than a million commercial airline pilots and maintenance technicians. The company signed a long-term agreement with TUI Travel to cover complete fleet training for Thomson Airways, including its new 787 Dreamliners.