Four years and one pandemic later, the world’s aerospace industry gathered at Le Bourget airport north of Paris for the return of the Paris Air Show. The biannual event billed as the world’s most prestigious aircraft exposition typically sees major aircraft sales contracts announced. It’s an exciting and frantic expression of pent-up energy featuring the entire supply chain, from raw materials producers to Tier fabricators, OEMs, and customers. CW’s Eric Kulisch spent two days navigating the massive event for FreightWaves.
Car Service for The Paris Air Show
With 2,500 firms displaying planes, drones and prototype flying taxis, it’s hard to miss the latest aerospace innovations at this year’s show. But this year’s Paris Air Show Driver Service also showcased the future of transportation as developers unveiled eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft that can fly without a runway, using smaller engines and less parts to reduce emissions.
The biggest announcement came on Friday, when Airbus finalized a blockbuster order from low-cost Indian airline IndiGo for 500 A320 jets. Other major orders included a new deal from Flynas, the low-cost Saudi Arabian carrier; and a commitment from fast-growing startup Akasa Air to buy four more A320 jets to help it expand in India.
However, some large defense firms have decided to skip the show. L3Harris, for example, won’t be paying to rent a corporate chalet on the flight line at Le Bourget airport and instead focus on company operations stateside. It joins Northrop Grumman, which hasn’t hosted a large corporate chalet at either Paris or the alternating-year Farnborough Air Show since 2012.