Western Manufacturers Eye Eastern Deals
While Paris had its usual lively press briefings about sales that have been stored up for announcement at the biennial event, Western manufacturers seemed more intent on firming up and expanding cooperative deals with their Eastern counterparts in Russia and China. Bombardier (BBD), ATR, and Boeing (BA) all announced expansion of agreements in China and Russia while EADS is being pressured by Russia to follow Boeing’s lead. In addition, U.S. operators, which are not entirely absent from aircraft order books given large deals by Northwest (NWA) and Delta (DAL), which were announced long ago, were otherwise conspicuously absent from the plethora of regional aircraft deals announced at the show.
For their part, the Eastern manufacturers are intent on seeing their products are not just for the home markets, despite assumptions they will have little success outside those markets until they have proven themselves. However, Sukhoi’s deal with Alenia to provide western marketing for the SuperJet has already been successful, given the agreement to place the SuperJet with an Italian regional airline. In addition, Mesa Airline’s (MESA) CEO President Jonathan Ornstein has already expressed interest in the China’s regional jet.
Bombardier and China Aviation Industry Corporation’s (AVIC I) new deal with Bombardier aims at strengthening the case for both AVIC I’s ARJ21-900 and Bombardier’s C-Series, which the manufacturers consider complementary aircraft. The launch decision for the ARJ21-900 is expected this year while the C-Series launch decision is expected next year.
Not to be left out is Embraer (ERJ) since the 145 is already manufactured in China, and ATR, which just expanded its relationship with AVIC I.
While Boeing and Airbus garnered most of the news in their perennial competition, the score card in the regional field is decidedly in Embraer’s favor judging solely on Paris order announcements. Embraer and ATR, and, of course, Sukhoi, were really the only regional manufacturers making large order announcements at the show.