By Sangeeta Saxena
Le Bourget. 19 June 2019. It was day which could be clearly said to have gone to the regional aviation and small aircraft manufacturers.Day 3 saw ATR creating interest by announcing a short take off and landing version of their turboprop ATR42, the ATR42-600S. This special version can use runways that are as short as 800m, making it an ideal choice for remote locations where longer runways are just not possible. And all this despite its absence in the show for both the ATRs on display were ATR 72s. Air Tahiti placed a firm order for two and Elix Aviation Capital signed a MoU for ten. Brazilian aircraft major Embraer which turned fifty at the show got an order for 15 and 30 purchase rights from KLM for their City Hopper fleet for E195-E2.
A321XLRs of Airbus remained cynosure of all eyes and the signing spree continued as the European manufacturer and Indigo Partners signed a memorandum of understanding for 50 Airbus A321XLRs out of which 32 were brand new orders with the rest being converted from existing A320 orders. These aircraft were for Chilean ULCC JetSmart, Hungarian Wizz Air and Colorado based Frontier. American Airlines also converted 30 of their existing orders to the XLR, and ordered an additional 20 aircraft for their fleet. Not to be left behind Australia’s Qantas Group secured a firm order for 10 A321XLRs, as well as a conversion of 26 of their existing A321 orders to the XLR version.
Airbus flew ahead with China Airlines announcing a MoU for purchase of 11 A321neos along with a lease agreement for a further 14. And Dublin based Accipiter Holdings signed a purchase agreement for 20 A320neo aircraft from Airbus.
While for the American Boeing an order of five 777-200LR from Turkmenistan Airlines saved the day for them. Qatar Airways ordered five of the 777 Freighter aircraft and China Airlines also ordered a further six 777F freighters, to take their fleet to a total of nine. Both these orders, however, were not firm placements. ASL Aviation Holdings signed an MoU for 20 of the 737-800 Boeing converted freighters.
Mitsubishi announced the selling of 15 of their newly redesigned Spacejet M100 aircraft to an undisclosed North American Airline.
Rotortrade Services announced the purchase and sale of a further batch of six pre-owned helicopters leveraging its global distributorship agreement with Leonardo. Rotortrade has been the sole worldwide pre-owned helicopters distributor for Leonardo since 2014. Since then over 27 Leonardo aircraft have been sold to end-users worldwide.
There was more than just sale and purchase on Day 3 at Paris. Twenty-three aeronautics industry leaders, research organisations and university associations across Europe signed a “Joint Declaration of European Aviation Research Stakeholders Related to Clean Aviation in Horizon Europe”, to express their strong commitment to a future European partnership that can lead the way towards a deep decarbonisation of aviation by 2050. The partnership should build on the progress made under the Clean Sky programmes, and develop further-reaching innovations and concrete roadmaps for their implementation in a new breed of aircraft from 2030 and beyond.Signatory parties included Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, Safran CEO Philippe Petitcolin, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East and Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo.
IT giants Accenture, Capgemini, FPT Software, IBM, and Sopra Steria have signed agreements with Airbus to become early adopters of the Skywise Partner Programme. As part of the programme, these companies will benefit from dedicated training and certification so they develop more applications within Skywise on behalf of an airline. Certified partners will have access to their own working space on Skywise and to additional platform features.
GE Aviation and Lufthansa Technik said they have signed a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) agreement under which Lufthansa Technik will be GE’s authorised service provider for the backup generator/converter (BUG and BUC) and for certain Electrical Load Management Systems (ELMS) components on the new Boeing 777X aircraft. This long-term cooperation will cover the maintenance service offerings, warranty support and 24/7 asset exchange/loan services to worldwide 777X operators. Lufthansa is currently one of the launch customers for the new Boeing 777X aircraft with 20 total aircraft ordered. Boeing offers the 777X in several passenger aircraft configurations all powered by the GE9X engine.
Parker Aerospace, a business group of Parker Hannifin, and Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) announced an agreement for long-term collaboration on Boeing 787 component maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services. The agreement covers the vast majority of repairable and test-only components for the Parker-designed 787 hydraulic system.
Airbus Helicopters and Safran Helicopter Engines signed a letter of intent (LoI) and formalised their willingness to jointly demonstrate future technologies that will contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and sound levels for future vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) platforms.
Airbus Helicopters and India’s Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the future introduction of two new categories of rotorcraft in the PHL fleet as well as for the repair, maintenance and overhaul of its existing AS365N Dauphin helicopters. The MOU also includes customised training and an on-site Safety Management System (SMS) for PHL pilots. PHL is the largest customer in the world for Airbus Dauphin helicopters. It currently has 37 units deployed for offshore Oil & Gas operations, VIP transportation and other utility duties.
Gardner Aerospace said it has signed deals with Airbus and with GKN. The new deal with Airbus is for US$70 million and covers work packages resulting from Airbus’s D2P (detailed parts partner) commodity-based consolidation programme and are for both machined and sheet metal products. Gardner said it has also signed deals with GKN to provide engine pylon secondary structure sub-assemblies, shroud box sub-assemblies and wingtip and winglet navigation light housings.
So despite the hue and cry being over sales of aircraft the truth of this years Paris Air Show is that it sold technologies, forged partnerships and created supply chains. The sale of components was a major and brisk business which took over the Day 3 .
