Airbus and Boeing eye lucrative maintenance market

LE BOURGET, FRANCE: Airbus and Boeing wheeled out the usual round of order announcements at the Paris Air Show, but alongside the big ticket purchases, the aerospace rivals are also eyeing the lucrative maintenance and servicing market as they seek to boost growth.

Boeing finalised an order for three 787 Dreamliners to Israeli carrier El Al and inked a memorandum of understanding with leasing company Air Lease Corporation for 12 737 MAXs, while Airbus announced US$1.5 billion in orders for Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air and Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly.

Away from the order books, Airbus and Boeing are targeting the service and maintenance market as a means of boosting business, with the global fleet of planes on course to double by 2036.

Boeing values global demand for aerospace services at US$2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.

Europe and North America are expected to remain the biggest markets, but the fastest growth is set to come in Asia, where demand for new planes is booming.

The US giant predicts the global aviation support market – which includes maintenance, engineering, training and information services and analytics – will be worth some US$8.5 trillion between 2017 and 2036.

These services go alongside the massive growth in global air traffic and demand for new aircraft – Boeing estimates more than 41,000 planes will be needed in the next 20 years for an estimated US$6.05 trillion. — AFP