Boeing fails to bring in any orders at the Paris Air Show

With the Air France disaster still very fresh in everyone’s minds, especially those in Paris (where many of the victims were from), the Paris Air Show wasn’t the same spectacle it usually is. With it being the 100th anniversary of the show, it seems that the disaster of Air France Flight 447 is still weighing heavily on airlines.

At the opening day of the Air Show, Boeing didn’t get one single order and its main competitor Airbus was only able to get just one sell from Qatar Airways for 27 jets.

The purchase from Airbus for the 24 A320 single aisle airplanes is worth $1.9 billion, well that’s the list price anyway. Usually airlines, especially given the global economic condition, are able to haggle down the price to a much more reasonable level.

The big winner of the day ended up being Canada’s Bombardier aircraft. The Canadian plane maker announced that it had 35 offers for its CRJ100 jets offered by Air Nostrum, the deal is worth $1.75 billion. Bombardier are typically smaller planes and don’t travel the vast distances that Airbus and Boeing jets do.

Boeing has been having a hard time peddling their wares considering the lack of commercial flying and even weakening military sales. If you look at commercial flight inside the confidential United States, the majority of flights are on smaller regional jets like the Bombardiers now. When I booked a flight from Memphis to Washington D.C., I was only able to fly on smaller regional jets versus just a couple years ago when the same flight could have been booked on a Boeing 727 or Airbus.

Boeing did try to liven up the mood regarding its sales however:

“At this point it appears to us that the economic conditions have bottomed. If they have bottomed and a recovery comes next year, I think we have a shot at getting through,” said Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing’s commercial division.

Hopefully things will get better for the Chicago based company, or perhaps it is time for them to start producing the smaller jets that seem to be selling better.