Boeing, Airbus pack swagger for air show

SEATTLE — Boeing will show up at this week's Farnborough International Airshow outside London with more swagger than it has in the past, confident that its business has rarely been better.

Rival Airbus, facing production woes and political turmoil in Europe, is certainly at a more fragile moment in its history. Yet its executive team won't yield an inch at Farnborough. It will even introduce one of the likely stars of the show: the new 100to 130-seat A220 — the renamed CSeries jet acquired this month from Bombardier of Canada.

That plane underscores a new divergence in the strategies of the two rivals.

For the past decade, Airbus and Boeing have split the global market roughly in half, with comparable planes competing in each size category.

Now, however, Airbus has developed a significant lead in the narrowbody jet market, while Boeing hopes to solidify its recent advantage in the widebody jet market.

Furthermore, Boeing is boldly proposing to launch an all-new jet in an entirely new, in-between size and range category.

Boeing's bright hope is that this plane — it's referred to as the New Midmarket Airplane or NMA, but many already call it the 797 — will come to dominate a new market of medium-range international routes, including travel across the north Atlantic and within Asia.

To clear the way for sales at the top end of this market, Boeing sales chief Ihssane Mounir seems bent this year on trying to kill Airbus' revamped A330neo before it can gain any sales momentum.

Airbus executives are adamant he won't succeed.

At Farnborough, Boeing's newfound aggression will engage with a new untested leadership team at Airbus that's making its first appearance at an air show.